


The Queen’s Castle

by QueenSwan (BurningSwan)



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Amnesia, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Celty is a mute, Character Death, Confusion, Death, Dialogue Heavy, Drugs, False Memories, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-Con (Past), Implied/Referenced Torture, Insomnia, Manipulation, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Mental Anguish, Mental Instability, Mind Manipulation, Minor Character Death, Multi, Non-Linear Narrative, Obsession, Possessive Behavior, Rape trauma, Recovered Memories, Repressed Memories, Sexual Confusion, Sexual Fantasy, Slow Burn, Smoking, Supernatural Elements, Temporary Amnesia, Violence, at times - Freeform, girlxgirl, implied character deaths, not a dullahan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-01-17 14:51:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 25,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12368082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningSwan/pseuds/QueenSwan
Summary: “If you leave, you must face a trial: the Shadows of Fate.”That’s what everyone is told constantly. No one knows what the Shadows of Fate are, some have tried to leave but no one knows if they are successful or what happens to them, since they never return.Everyone is born in the Castle and for the most part, they all stay there. It is said that The Queen can encounter the Shadows of Fate anywhere. She is special.But she’s not the only one.There is one who has been outside the Castle, a man named Orihara Izaya, he wasn’t born in the Castle like the rest, he comes from the Outside, though he doesn’t remember much.Other secrets lurk within the walls of the Castle, however, and Izaya may be in for more than be bargained for.





	1. The Man Named Orihara Izaya

**Author's Note:**

> In case you couldn’t tell from the tags, this gets really dark (relatively fast, but not from the beginning). Mind the tags, this is going to be a bumpy ride. (Some of the tags are added just to be safe, but...) 
> 
> Anyways, don’t expect Shizaya any time soon. 
> 
> ~QS

“What are the Shadows of Fate?” He asks, lounging on the couch facing the same way as The Queen’s throne.

“You must have encountered them before. Back when you were in the Outside and not safe within the Castle. They cannot be described to those who have never seen them. Even though you have, if you don’t remember, I cannot help you.” The Queen, a lithe dark-haired woman with fair skin and stark twinkling blue eyes offsetting her delicate features, replies. 

“Hmm.” Is all Izaya hums in reply as he shifts onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

Then, not a minute later, he pipes up again.

“Hey, Queen?”

“Yes, Izaya?”

“Is it true you can see the Shadows of Fate anywhere?”

“The Shadows of Fate are always with us, even if they cannot be seen or felt. They have a stronger presence outside the Castle and thus can be seen by most, if not all. They are dangerous though, when their presence is too strong. That is why I created this safe haven, the Castle, since I was unique among the humans.” The Queen answers, standing from her throne and walking to the couch. She rests a bejeweled hand on the edge, leaning over to meet Izaya’s gaze. 

“Do you not feel safe here? Do you wish to return to the Outside?”

Izaya shakes his head. He is curious, but he heeds The Queen’s warning. She had been in the Outside for way longer than he had been- as far he knew, he’d only been out there a few years at most before he was brought to the Castle for refuge by...Well, he doesn’t know who brought him here. It could have been The Queen herself, since she still returned Outside regularly.

He knew he was special, since he was the only other aside from The Queen to have been outside, and come back, and the only other to have been born outside the Castle. 

He was one of few allowed such personal visits with The Queen, most only ever saw her from afar and never actually got to have a conversation with her.

“It’s best that you return, Izaya. Your friends will be waiting for you in the cafeteria.” The Queen speaks again, sweeping back to her throne and sitting down on it, her light blue cape fluttering softly. 

He gets up and bows, taking his leave at her suggestion. 

———

“What’s The Queen like in person?” Erika asks, when he sits down with Kadota’s gang in the cafeteria.

Izaya shrugs.

“She’s interesting, I guess.” He supplies unhelpfully.

“Is she like an ice queen, like...” Walker babbles and Izaya stops listening, distracted by someone walking on the other side of the cafeteria.

The face looks familiar but he knows he has never seen them before. When he blinks, the face changes and he recognizes the person as Kida.

‘What was that? Why did he look like someone else for a moment?’ 

Kadota notices his confusion.

“Is something wrong, Izaya?”

He shakes his head, frowning down at his food, suddenly losing his appetite. 

‘Something is missing...Something that was here before...’

He thinks, but no matter how much he tries to figure it out, he only draws a blank. 

He pokes at his food and eats a small amount, before placing his silverware on it and clearing his dishes. Kadota notices, but thankfully he doesn’t comment. 

———

He can’t seem to sleep, so he wanders the halls, passing familiar faces of strangers and feeling oddly out of place.

He freezes when someone who...looks like him and another who looks like the man he saw earlier (that had changed to Kida) walk past him, laughing and playfully hitting each other.

When he whirls around, no one’s there. Though Vorona turns the corner walking in the same direction he had been before he’d stopped.

Vorona blinks at him, seems to notice something is wrong, so she stops, a pile of laundry pressed to her chest.

“Is something wrong? Should you see The Queen, Orihara-kun?” She sounds distant. He’d never really gotten along with her, but he can’t figure out why.

“No, everything’s fine. Just thought I saw something, but it was just a shadow.”

Vorona glances around, but holds her tongue and refrains from pointing out that there are no shadows.

Shadows do not exist within the Castle. Everyone knows this. Everyone was born in the Castle and they’ve all been told what they will face if they decide to leave the safety and comfort of the familiar for the adventure and unknown of the Outside. But Izaya wasn’t born within the Castle like everyone else. He’s from Outside, like The Queen. 

Maybe he can always see the Shadows of Fate like it is rumored The Queen can? 

Vorona accepts his answer, regardless, shoving away her thoughts and telling herself she won’t get involved because everything with Izaya smells of danger and death and sadness. 

Everyone within the Castle is different. Each has some small kind of special ability. Vorona’s is a good intuition added by her ability to smell differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’. It’s how she has avoided getting into trouble or ending up in over her head for the most part, and why she leaves Izaya be without telling him anything.

She walks past him at a somewhat brisk pace, holding the clothes to her chest almost to ward off the dangerous scent that curls in the air like an inviting poison. She ignores it, knowing it’s better that she does and scurries to her dorm, never more grateful to see her roommate, Namie, than now. 

She’ll request an audience with The Queen tomorrow to discuss the possibility that Izaya can see shadows. Better to tell her than get in trouble for holding her tongue when they find out.

———

Izaya heads back to his dorm, unnerved still by the person who looked like him (though maybe younger?) and that other man who had been with him (who looks familiar yet Izaya knows no one like him at the Castle and he knows he had met everyone and so he can’t know this man and he can’t exist either). 

His sleep is fitful at best. 

His roommate asks what’s wrong multiple times to no avail, settling to ignore him for the rest of the night and just head to sleep.

Izaya’s dreams are full of cigarettes and what he thinks might be kisses, but his mind is hazy and when he wakes up all he remembers is a sweet taste in his mouth and the heavy scent of burning tobacco.


	2. The Man Named Shizuo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of them trusts The Queen with their life.
> 
>  
> 
> The other wants nothing to do with her.
> 
>  
> 
> One is special, the other is ordinary, yet they are both inexplicably drawn to each other, even under the circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Castle: a large enchanted building created by The Queen as a safe haven from the Shadows of Fate. Neither light nor dark exist within the Castle, since no shadows can be seen. 
> 
> The Queen: a beautiful, seemingly ageless woman who created the Castle. She has the ability to always see the Shadows of Fate, though she seems unaffected by them. 
> 
> The Shadows of Fate: an unknown entity as of yet that most people Outside can see but everyone except The Queen can’t see them when inside the Castle.
> 
> Outside: Anywhere outside the Castle. It’s rumored to be dangerous and filled with the Shadows of Fate. Much has yet to be understood about Outside.
> 
> Witches: Woman with a unique connection to each other and the animal and color of what kind of witch they are. 
> 
> Dreams of Prophecy: Dreams usually contain images of past, present, or future, though they are usually forgotten. Dreams of the past are more likely to be forgotten than Dreams of the present or the future. Not everyone has Dreams of Prophecy, in fact, most don’t. It is usually a special ability of someone born within the Castle.
> 
> Special abilities: everyone born inside the Castle is known to have some small special ability. Those born Outside aren’t known if they have abilities but there are special kinds of people who have abilities regardless, like the witches. 
> 
> Hopefully this will help a little. I will add more to later chapter notes as I think of stuff.
> 
> ~QS

He can't say anything. He knows he can't but that doesn't make it any less painful.

"How long?" He queried, letting out a shaky breath.

All he gets is a sympathetic look and a shrug.

"I don't know." The nurse, a wiry brunette with her hair kept short in a clipped bob and thick-rimmed black glasses, confesses, twiddling her fingers and avoiding his gaze.

"Can't you do something? Anything?" He's increasingly desperate.

"We can only do so much here. If we had The Queen's help, though-"

"We can't go to her," Shizuo interrupts her aggressively, causing the smaller person to startle and shrink away. 

He forces in deep breaths to calm himself.

"I don't- can't- trust her with this."

The nurse looks at him fearfully.

"You shouldn't say that. You know she still comes here-"

"And when she does, I'll be waiting and I'm going to fix this."

The nurse nods meekly, rubs her hands together.

"We have no choice then."

"What?-" He gets cut off, flinches then goes stiff as a foreign liquid enters his veins and he gets dizzy and unsteady on his feet as his gaze blurs before he blacks out.

As he falls, he sees another nurse holding a syringe with a suspicious-looking liquid filling half of its container.

———

He wakes up sweating. He sits up in a panic to see a bored-looking blonde turning the pages of a chapter book in the visitor chair across the bed.

She glances up and closes the book with a firm thud.

"You're awake, Shizuo-san."

"Who are you?" He demands, voice slurring and sounding distant and unrecognizable.

"My name is Nai, or you can call me Burn. Either way. I'm Wren's girlfriend," she pauses as though considering something. "Ah, Wren is the nurse you were with earlier. Oh, but Noah was the one who injected the syringe, not me or Wren." 

Shizuo blinks, still feeling sluggish- likely from whatever shit they put in his bloodstream. 

"Why...am I here?" He questions.

"We can't have you doing anything that could threaten our reputation or bring an onslaught of the Shadows. You of all people should know just how dangerous they can be."

"Why should I fear that which I cannot even see?"

The woman blinks, once then multiple times in rapid succession.

"You...you can't see them? I thought everyone could..." she seems thrown off by this.

Shizuo notes this; anything is useful if he can use it to manipulate the situation. 

He shakes his head in response to Nai's question. Before he can actually reply verbally, the door opens and the nurse- Wren, Shizuo reminds himself- and another man, likely Noah, walk in, followed by a petite young girl.

"Sorry we had to be so rough and careless with you," the man says, not even looking in Shizuo's direction. "It was a precaution." He slips on medical gloves procedurally and finally turns Shizuo's way, giving him a clear view of the man's face.

He sears it into his memory, perhaps to get back at him in the future. After, he reminds himself. He has more important things to deal with.

Then he remembers the girl. He turns to look at her.

She looks to be roughly around ten, with ebony black hair and eyes gray as stone. Her wavy hair is tied back into pigtails with red ribbons and her eyes are vacant, almost unseeing.

Wren seems to notice his focus on the girl.

"Her name is Lisette. She's my friend's cousin. Well, friend of a friend. We're all 'witches', meaning we all have a special connection to each other and to our subtype animal." 

"I didn't know anything about witches..." he mumbles. 

Nai chuckles.

"Most people don't. There is much in this world we do not understand. Especially 'Outside'. In certain ways, the Castle is actually a safe haven." She muses. 

Noah shoots her a pointed glance, lip curling down in displeasure. His dark eyes swirl indigo with mystery and confusion. It would be easy to get lost and drown in those eyes. 

"Are you also a witch, Nai?" Shizuo risks asking.

She shakes her head with a tinkling laugh. 

"Neither is Noah. If you might think men could be witches."

Noah rolls his eyes.

"That's enough, Nai. It's time again."

"Already?" The blonde woman sighs, standing and stretching like a cat. 

Nai snakes her arms around Wren's and the two exit, Lisette trailing after them disinterestedly.

The door closes with a soft click and Shizuo is left alone with Noah.

For a while, the other just stands there, running his tongue over his lips. But then he's moving and he gets out what looks like another syringe but this liquid is a different color- a various array of shimmering blues like the dark bottom of the ocean. 

Shizuo stills, keeping a close eye on Noah and the syringe.

He can't bring himself to ask what it is and he doesn't think he wants to know.

It's all over so quickly- too quickly?

His eyes flutter, everything tilts, and he falls? 

Noah stares down at him, face unreadable and seemingly impassive, uncaring.

The room smells like disinfectant and faintly of crisp crimson blood.

'How long?'

He wondered as he was sat up on the bed in a haze, vision to blurry to make anything out.

He tastes tobacco on his tongue like a teasing reminder and he wishes for more, but at the same time, wants nothing.

His tongue recoils as the taste changes from bitter to sickeningly sweet and he feels light and fluffy but sick.

He doesn't know how long it lasts. The fluctuations between feeling euphoric and feeling dreadfully ill and gross and disgusting and like he is dying.

Does it actually end?

He has to wonder. Maybe he's trapped in a cycle. Maybe he's been trapped and never knew.

Certain things become fuzzy in his mind but he doesn't fucking forget what he promised to never forget.

He wouldn't forget the flea and there was no way in hell he would abandon him.

First, he had to get out of here.

Away from these people who drugged him with unknown chemicals without batting an eyelash. Like indifferent robots just doing their menial tasks.

His sleep is undisturbed, but riddled with confusing dreams about ice and poison that he forgets immediately upon waking, thinking that he has forgotten something important, and perhaps he has.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this series will probably not make much sense for a while until things start to come to light. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed regardless.
> 
>  
> 
> ~QS


	3. The Girl Named Lisette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izaya starts to realize there are things he doesn’t know about going on around him...

"You seem lost."

Izaya startles at the voice, sounding young yet his instincts warn him of danger.

He turns to see a young girl, roughly 10, with unblinking gray eyes and hair as dark as night (not that anyone in the Castle knew what night looked like). 

She smiles innocently at him, hands kept behind her back as she waltzes up to him.

"Orihara Izaya, the one other Castle resident to have gone Outside."

Izaya realizes why he feels so unnerved when the girl is standing right before him.

It's not that he hasn't seen her before, but he hardly ever sees her in general and there's an unidentifiable scent lingering on her clothes that doesn't smell like anything else in the Castle.

"I'm not lost." He finally retorts, collecting himself and shaking off his unsteady nerves.

She blinks as though she didn't expect this reply.

"Also, who are you?" He demands, keeping a good distance from the child.

She sighs and waves a hand dismissively.

"Lisette Cortano. I'm cousins with Taya."

Izaya vaguely knew who Taya was; she always hung out with the rest of the...witches.

A realization hit him.

"You're a witch?"

Lisette nodded after a moment.

"We're not that different from the rest of you guys. We just prefer to be in each other's company. It's in our blood." 

"Have you met The Queen, then?" Izaya knew the witches were special. They were often granted personal admittance into The Queen's Court to discuss various things with The Queen.

"Once, when I was younger. I don't remember it much. But you, Izaya, have seen The Queen much more than any of us ever have. Because you also have been Outside. I wonder what it is like. Fresh air, the sky, plants. We have seen so little in the Castle. There are things we miss."

"It's too dangerous Outside," Izaya warns her. "Besides, how can you prepare yourself for what's out there when we don't know what the Shadows are like?"

Lisette blinked, a smile crossing her face that seemed positively devious.

"I can imagine what they are like or what they are. Maybe because I'm a witch, but I don't plan on going Outside any time soon. I fear what else might be out there." 

Izaya opens his mouth to reply, but Lisette has disappeared, like she was never there in the first place.

For a fearful second, he thinks it's like what happened the other day, when he kept seeing the face of someone he didn't know. Luckily he realizes this is different. It probably has something to do with her being a witch. 

His heart rate slows back to normal. He hadn't even realized it had sped up in the first place. 

He heads back to his dorm since he forgot where he was going.

His roommate, Shinra, glances at him once before returning to poring over some fancy-looking document.

Izaya ignores him back, sitting at his own desk.

He searches for something to do to pass the time...

———

It starts with a tingle at the back of his neck like guilt or shame. Then with a painfully slow crawl, it creeps down his spine, stopping just short of his tailbone, before shooting back up to his neck.

Dread pools in his stomach and almost robotically he heads out the dorm room, stopping in the doorway and blinking his eyes.

Swarms of people walk down the hallways, all in the same direction at basically the same pace.

He blinks in confusion, watching familiar faces pass by, lost amongst the sheer amount of people crowding the hallways.

"What the hell is going on?" He mutters, retreating back into the dorm, noticing his roommate seems entirely unaffected.

"Hey, Shinra. Do you know what's going on?"

"We have been summoned by...," Shinra falters, his voice sounding mechanical before returning to his normal voice. "It's the Purification. On the Day of the Moon she summons us to the Cave and we see both light and dark, but no shadows."

"What? What do you mean?"

Shinra shakes his head helplessly.

"You've never been involved. The Queen told me she wants to summon you alone. I guess she hasn't yet. The Purification is what helps protect the Castle from the Shadows by flooding the Cave with light...or something. I've been trying to figure it out. It doesn't work as well on me, but she doesn't know. Otherwise, you'd probably never see me again."

"Doesn't work as well? Never see you again? I don't understand, Shinra." Izaya shakes his head because nothing is making sense and his roommate is acting weird but he's not walking with the rest.

"I don't have enough time, I have to join them so they won't notice. Sorry, Izaya, but I may not get to talk about this again. Just be wary, careful. Not everything is as it-" He stops, his eyes glazing over and he brushes past Izaya, joining the last trickle of people and disappearing down the hall.

Izaya stares at the place where they all disappeared to, wanting to check it out, but his gut feeling told him he shouldn't. He heads the opposite way, wandering through the Castle again. He sees new rooms and notices old ones that have disappeared. All the work of The Queen's enchantment. 

As he walks, he notices something. On the walls, something shimmers, seeming to follow him as he wandered down a hallway that hadn't been there the other day. 

He sees a room with the door slightly ajar, and an overwhelming curiosity and need to check that room washes over him with such an immense strength it almost made him dizzy.

He touches the door handle and freezes. He hears voices.

"You're sure the...dose...in effect? You know...he...we don't..." It sounds like an older woman, probably only a few years older than Izaya. He doesn't recognize the voice.

"Of course...wouldn't make...of letting...up." A male voice this time. Neither seem to be in the room.

Izaya darts into the room to hide, not even glancing around and squeezing into a closet he spies to his left.

He shuts the door almost completely as the door swings wide and he sees the two people who he had heard talking. 

He doesn't full recognize the man, though he looks like someone else Izaya has seen before, but he remembers the other to be one of the witches along with Lisette and Taya. Her name slips his mind. Was it Vespa or something?

He finally looks around the room and his heart freezes as his blood turns cold.

Lying half-delirious on the bed is a barely conscious man Izaya recognizes as the man he thought he saw the other day. 

Izaya has met everyone in the Castle, but not this man.

What the hell was going on?


	4. The Girl Named Nai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shizuo tries to make an ally out of Nai to help him escape. Only time will tell if he’s successful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These were supposed to be posted with the last chapter but I forgot to, so here they are now:
> 
> The Cycle: At the end of a 31 day period, (almost) everyone heads to the Cave for the Purification.
> 
> The Purification: The exposure of moonlight to the Cave and the Castle inhabitants to fortify the protection spell to keep the Shadows of Fate away from the Castle.
> 
> The Cave: a room Izaya has never been that can open to the sky for the Purification on the 31st day of the Cycle when the moon will shine directly above the Cave.
> 
> (Keep in mind the notes are mostly based off of Izaya’s perspective or knowledge of each thing, so they may not be 100% accurate)
> 
> ~QS

His gaze refocuses eventually. The world stops spinning and the blonde woman is reading again, same place as always. The same pattern as always.

"Why are you the one who is always here?" He asks.

Nai flutters her lashes.

"Dunno. It's quiet. A good place to read while you are...asleep." 

"What are you always reading anyways?"

"Noah's sister is a writer. Her name is Nicole. I read her books since they are less dreary than my other two friends who write."

"Oh. What are they about?" Shizuo decides he might as well talk with Nai and see if he can garner any favor to get out of here, away from the menial repeat of wake up, get drugged, fall unconscious, wake up. 

"This series is a mystery fiction. It's rather interesting, and way less dark than some of what I have read."

Shizuo falls silent, trying to think of how to continue the conversation. He had never exactly been a good conversationalist, and he had never really needed to be. He missed the quiet companionship of Celty. 

Wren appears a while later, noticing that he is awake, and calm.

"That's rare. Nai, I thought you said...?" Wren trails off questioningly.

"Where's Noah?" Nai queries, ignoring Wren's unfinished question.

"He will come eventually. He was held up back at the Cave." Wren replies.

"He actually went? I thought he wouldn't since he hates it there. The Purification has no effect on him anyways. Lisette says he never grows closer to death." Nai commented, face grave.

The two seem to forget Shizuo is even there, distracted by their own conversation.

"Well, it's for appearances, I suppose. The Queen fears him and wants to control him like she does with those who try to defy her." Wren shrugs.

"Like she did with Mina...She tore her and Syrus apart." 

"You shouldn't bring that up. That name...if The Queen ever heard you say it..." Wren's eyes trail over to the door.

"It's not like I brought up The Queen's sister, and besides we're safe here, for now. She doesn't know about this place."

"She will learn of this eventually. We should prepare for the worst. Lisette has mentioned some of what she has seen while working closely with The Queen." Wren shudders.

"I do not fear anything as long as we are together." Nai whispers.

"Our end is not with each other." Wren shakes her head, touching a hand to Nai's shoulder.

Shizuo clears his throat awkwardly.

The two whip around towards him, realizing their carelessness.

"I forgot since he was so calm...!" Wren smacks her forehead.

"He doesn't need a dose now," Nai chides. "Leave him alone."

Wren shakes her head fiercely.

"Noah will be mad if we don't-"

"If you don't what?" Wren freezes at Noah's voice as said man steps into the room, instantly grabbing a pair of medical gloves and putting them on. He hums to himself.

"Well?" He prompts, turning to the brunette nurse, eyes cold.

Wren rubs her hand together nervously.

"Just a small thing, really. We didn't- I didn't give him the small dose of the other drug."

Noah pauses, stops rummaging around the room.

"What?" His voice splits the air like an ax, sending tensions arcing high in the air.

"Noah, he doesn't need it," Nai placates, opening her book again, seeming unconcerned. "Leave it be."

"Nai, did you forget what happened last time we didn't-" Noah begins, but Nai cuts in calmly.

"If that's what you're worried about, you're needlessly concerned with the trite things." She turns the page of her book pointedly. 

"Reading Nicole's stuff again? She wastes her time on such rubbish...She should be worried about her friend that went Outside rather than writing..." Noah shakes his head, clicking his tongue.

"Your sister is very worried about Maria, don't mock her!" Wren snaps, suddenly angry.

"So worried she can't write, I see. She must be worried sick about her precious friend." Noah snarks, filling a syringe with the same shimmering dark blue liquid as always. 

"At least she's not the one keeping silent on Maria's whereabouts!" Wren all but shrieked.

"I'm not the one keeping quiet about that," Noah snarls, finally getting pissed enough to snap. "Irene said not to tell Nicole, so I didn't. I don't know where she fucking is, I just know that Irene does." 

He turns sharply towards Shizuo, hand tightly curled around the syringe. 

"Oh great," Shizuo mutters as he understands that it's that time again. The syringe pricks his neck and the weird liquid gets injected.

Immediately, he feels woozy and his vision blurs. He doesn't lose consciousness right away, merely floating in the in-between state he has become familiar with. The thought is sickening. 

As Wren and Noah continue bickering, he notices Nai watching him sympathetically. He hates it, but he thinks that if he can manipulate her to help him, maybe this is worth it.

It's degrading, but there's so few options when he's barely ever conscious since as soon as he wakes, a new dose awaits to be injected. 

His eyelids droop and his head rolls to one side.

The voices are indistinguishable at this point, a blur of white noise in the back of his mind.

———

The next time he wakes up, Nai isn't there, but Lisette is. She's there much more rarely than the other three.

She meets his gaze and smiles.

"Hello, Shizuo," she greets. "Do you want me to help you?"

"How?"

"I can get to someone you can't. Not while you are here."

Shizuo thinks normally he would have wondered who she meant, but this wasn't normally and he knew as soon as she said that who she meant.

Izaya.

The name flashes through his dull brain and he feels something flow through his veins that isn't any of the drugs. 

"What will you do?"

Lisette's smile widens.

"Help him escape the Castle."

Shizuo shakes his head as best he can, only then realizing the way his limbs felt immovable.

"Can't," he manages to mumble. "Not possible." 

Lisette blinks her eyes, curling her lashes innocently.

"No, very possible." She smirks.

"Because I can get close to The Queen."

"Why would you do that?" He croaks.

"Well, I might, but I might not. I have taken an interest in him. Orihara Izaya, that is."


	5. Outside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izaya overhears the conversation between the doctor and the nurse...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update! I had a little bit of writer’s block for this so it was slow progress...I also must apologize for all the overload of information from the conversation, and it’s somewhat unrelated nature (ie focusing on small, sometimes irrelevant details about other ocs).
> 
> Hope you enjoy anyways, the next chapters will probaly be more interesting...
> 
> ~QS

Izaya remained where he was while the two entered the room. One instantly started pulling on medical gloves, while the other took readings and checked on the hospitalized man.

"How long ago did you give the last dose?" The nurse queried, glancing frequently at the man on the hospital bed as though he would wake up at any moment and strangle her.

"Not too long ago. You know, that was supposed to be your responsibility." The man answered.

The nurse wrinkled her brows.

"Yeah, well, you don't have Kayden as a friend. I never get a chance to slip away."

"Just call Jaimie over and then make a break for it."

"He's still my friend, and that's rude!"

"I've done it with Nai."

"That's because you're an ass, now, tell me what Lisette is planning."

"Shouldn't you know? She's a witch, and why do you think I know anyways? I'm not some omniscient god, you know." 

"Lisette's different. Besides, you always seem to know everything."

The man snorted.

"If I knew everything, Coren would still be alive." 

"Coren? Who's that?" 

The man frowned, looking regretful.

"Nala's younger brother, and my friend."

The nurse opened one of the cabinets, tossing her dark-haired companion something.

"Nala had a younger brother? I never heard anything about that."

"Hmm, so much for the witches' bond," the man mused. "She didn't tell most people about it since it happened when she was pretty young. Of course she told Katilyn, though."

"I'm still shocked to learn they were good friends since long ago."

"Really, your whole 'witches' bond' seems useless." The doctor scoffed.

"Did you know, then, Noah?" The brunette woman bristled.

The man, Noah, shrugged. "It's not important. Is Nai still with the others?"

"It's a little suspicious if all of us come every time, besides Ava was insistent that she get to talk with Nai and get to know her since we're dating."

"Lovely, she acts like your mother. What about her cousin, Emberly?"

"Emberly doesn't care, she also doesn't particularly like me because of Jashi."

"Right, whatever. Sounds too complicated," Noah muttered, ending that conversation abruptly and starting the next. "Are you sure we can trust Nevaeh with helping us from now on? She seems really suspicious, the type to betray easily when it suits her."

"We haven't got much choice. She already knows something is up and we can't have her telling The Queen when we don't want her to." The nurse sighed, pulling open a cabinet and reaching for something inside.

"Don't mess with that now, Wren," Noah groaned, finally messing with whatever his companion had tossed him earlier. "We still have to deal with the Purification."

"You still have to, Nai and I already went with the witches. You're foolish for dawdling so much, The Queen already mistrusts you because of what happened with Mina." Wren muttered, snatching what Izaya saw now to be a syringe from Noah. 

"That has nothing to do with me, even if I was friends with her. She was the one who irked The Queen and ended up leaving the Castle along with her sister and a few others." Noah huffed, sharply turning towards the door.

"I'll be back." He said, snappish, and then was gone.

Wren rolled her eyes, injected something into the unconscious man with a syringe, checked his condition and sat down calmly.

Well, looks like Izaya would be stuck where he was for a while now. He was still trying to absorb all the random bits of information and discern the useless from the useful. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Wren checked her watch and stood.

"Nai's supposed to come soon...I should go find Taya." She muttered to herself and practically ran out the room, still checking over her shoulder nervously.

Izaya took the chance when it presented itself, but he didn't leave right away, curiosity drawing him towards the heavily drugged and still unconscious man. 

He slid over to the side of the bed, peering down at the resting face partially hidden by a messy mop of blonde hair. 

The man's brows were furrowed even in his 'sleep', but he still had stunning features that Izaya took his time to absorb, tracing over the man's face with his eyes. 

His heart raced with excitement, but his curiosity still nagged at him, screaming at him to figure out who this man was...

He heard footsteps and this time, he darted out of the room, instantly slowly once he left the room and walking as leisurely and casually as he could manage with his heart racing and his blood rushing through his veins. 

As he walked back the way he came, a blonde woman, who he was certain was Nai, walked straight past him, originally without even sparing him a glance. 

After brushing past him and taking two strides, she stopped on heel and turned around towards Izaya, who paused momentarily.

"You're Izaya?" The woman queried, tilting her head.

Izaya nodded, not fully trusting himself to speak.

"I see. Tell The Queen her friend, Mina, says hi from the Outside," Nai smiled wryly. "And to have a nice day. And to you as well, have a nice day."

The woman dipped her head, pulled out a book from the bag Izaya now noticed hanging against her hip and flipped it open, before she continued on her way.

Izaya watched her to confirm which room she went to before he stopped to consider if there was more to her request to tell The Queen that a person who left the Castle and was now Outside that she said hi.

Did that mean Nai had gone Outside, or had she just said it to irk The Queen, who, from what he had gathered from Noah and Wren's conversation, had for some reason disliked Mina, whom Izaya didn't remember meeting, so he assumed she must have left when he was too young to remember it.

He returned to his room, but was stopped short outside his door by a person Izaya knew to be very close with The Queen. 

Elizabeth, likely The Queen's closest attendant, a petite woman with half her hair white as snow and the other half dark as coal, was waiting by his door, looking bored as she stared at him as he came closer.

She flicked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and out of her face.

"Hello, Izaya," she greeted in a monotonous voice. "The Queen would like to speak with you, can you come with me?"


	6. The Castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisette’s negotiations with Shizuo get interrupted by two other witchs, Serena ans Nevaeh and things go south from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we finally get to meet some of the other witches. Still no Celty yet, but she should appear eventually? I planned on having her show up earlier but that didn’t happen...
> 
> Anyways, hope you enjoy
> 
> ~QS

Shizuo eyed Lisette warily, knowing he shouldn't trust her but he had limited options.

"Why do you want to help him leave the Castle?" He asked suspiciously.

Lisette fiddled with the ends of one of her braids.

"It's dangerous within the Castle. I don't think I can trust The Queen as much as I have now that I have already started getting closer to her." Lisette admitted, avoiding eye contact with the drugged blonde.

"The others trust The Queen, don't they?" Shizuo queried.

"I haven't told them yet. What I have seen. But that's not what's important," Lisette focused her normally blank gaze on Shizuo fiercely. "Do you want me to help you?"

Shizuo considered Lisette, noting her expression and posture. 

"How would you convince him to leave? What if he doesn't want to leave?" 

"What's important is that we do leave! The Outside may be unknown to us, but surely it'd be better to live with free will than to live with a falsely instilled happiness! I thought you understood what kind of place this is!" Lisette yelled, smacking a hand down on the counter.

The door was pushed open just then and two witches Shizuo didn't immediately recognize walked in, one with short, cropped blonde hair and the other with inky black hair.

"What's going on, Lisette? You seem to be making such a fuss." The dark-haired witch mumbled, idly fiddling with her bangs.

"Serena...Why are you here? I thought you were on Elva's side for this matter? Did you change your mind?" Lisette crept closer to the door as she spoke, warily shooting glances at the blonde with Serena.

"Well, no. I still agree with Elva on this, however, I still think something needs to be done." Serena replied in almost a hushed whisper.

"Like what? What else is there to do other than wait it out for now? Are you not going to heed Nala's warning? You shouldn't disobey her, she's technically our leader since Cheryl secluded herself." Lisette stopped walking forward until she was right by Serena.

The blonde witch with Serena finally spoke. 

"We don't plan on disobeying Nala, Lisette. We know about her ability so we'll listen to her, but we shouldn't just leave things in such a dangerous and precarious balance." The woman smiled and Shizuo noticed a strange black tattoo on her neck. 

"Then what do you plan on doing, Nevaeh? Killing them? If you are, I can't let you." Lisette walked back towards the bed, practically bristling. 

"What can you do if we are, Lisette? You're the youngest of the witches, and you may be liked by Ava and Emberly but they don't have power influence within our circle, only over those who are part of the Jashi clan, like Taya and Astoria." Nevaeh, the blonde, scoffed, stepping up next to Serena.

"Serena, you'd really do this? Why do you trust her! You're also part of the Jashi clan!" Lisette turned to plead with the other.

Serena looked down at the floor.

"I haven't got any affiliations within our clan. I'm on no side on who should succeed Jashi Madeleine. Although it will likely be Emberly ever since Ava was injured." She said softly.

"Emilie!" Lisette shrieked, throwing something in Nevaeh's face before darting past the two witches.

There was a blinding flash and then a ivory-skinned woman appeared, gripping Nevaeh's neck and holding her up by her throat.

"My, my. You shouldn't harass a sweet girl like Lisette, Nev. Always a troublemaker, I see. I thought you agreed to Elva and Taya's truce?" The woman had long, wavy chocolate brown hair and snake green eyes. 

Serena leapt away from the new woman.

"Emilie," she squeaked. "What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast!" 

The woman laughed, throwing Nevaeh against the wall, where she crumpled to the floor. 

"Oh, Ser, dear, why must you be so weak-minded? Now we have to bring this to Nala, even though she's been so stressed out ever since Katilyn left." She sighed and yanked Nevaeh to her feet, helping her stand. Then she grabbed Serena by the arm and walked out with both the other witches. 

Another person peeked into the room a while later, unfortunately to find it empty.

"Well, this can't be good." 

———

Shizuo hardly had any strength since he was still pretty heavily drugged but he needed to see Celty. She might be able to help him. 

But the hallway he was walking down was completely empty and there were no doors anywhere. 

He heard footsteps behind him and when he whirled around, there was two of The Queen's assistants there, one he knew was Elizabeth but he wasn't sure about the other one.

"You're still around, Shizuo? I thought you'd died already. The Queen will be interested in hearing about this. The witches will have some explaining to do." Elizabeth mused, smiling, though it looked more like a pained grimace.

"It'll have to wait, she's still talking to Orihara. Besides, we still have something else to check up on from before." The other, a woman with dark red-brown hair, told Elizabeth.

Shizuo stiffened. 

Izaya was nearby? 

"Ah, yes, you're right. Excuse us, Shizuo. Be a good boy for us so we don't have to take care of you in the Reformatory." Elizabeth chuckled a dry laugh before she and the other woman walked by him.

He stared after them, conflicted about finding out where Izaya was and finding Celty to get her help.

He ended up trying to follow them to see if it led to somewhere outside the seemingly endless, empty hallway he seemed to be trapped in. 

Eventually, the hallway did open up into a 4-way intersection, with none of the options particularly drawing his attention.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" At the end of one of the intersections, a brunette woman stood, her hands full of papers.

Shizuo stared at her, in a mindless daze for just a moment as a side-effect of the drugs, before he snapped back to reality.

"Do you know who Izaya is?"


	7. The Fool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinra gets called to see The Queen by Lisette, and surely it can’t be anything good. 
> 
> Lisette starts to become fretful about what’s going on inside the Castle...
> 
> And Elizabeth confesses a concern to The Queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured I should mention this at some point, but this story isn’t written in chronological order so it’s a bit of a non-linear narrative. Once the chapters start being in order (if they do), I will probably disclose the chronological order of the chapters.
> 
> Still, it should be somewhat obvious for some of them where they fit in the order.
> 
> Anyways, here’s the next chapter.
> 
> ~QS

It happened when Shinra was returning to his dorm.

"Shinra, can you come with me? The Queen wants to see you." 

Shinra easily recognized the gray-eyed witch Lisette and he felt his stomach twist. 

"Of course. I cannot refuse an audience with The Queen." He replies, faking a polite smile.

Lisette leads him along until they reach an unfamiliar room that smells damp and faintly like blood.

She gestures for him to enter first, and so he does. She closes the door and locks it when she enters. Never a good sign.

In the center of the room, The Queen sits stiffly in a tall chair, facing one of the walls that had a few pairs of shackles attached to it.

"Shinra," The Queen speaks, sounding like she's sighing the name more than anything. "What have you done? Izaya has mentioned now that he wants to leave." 

Lisette stays by the door, but Shinra walks closer to The Queen. 

"Queen, I had no ill intentions. I merely was answering his questions about the Purification, since he didn't know anything."

"But why did you tell him? You knew I planned to bring him there myself one day. He would know eventually." The Queen sighs, fiddling with a strand of her long black hair.

"Yes, but I thought it would be better if he at least knew a little about it before you brought him there." 

The Queen tilts her head to the side, finally glancing over at Shinra.

"Come sit there. Lisette..." The Queen gestures to the space in front of her chair with her right hand. 

With no choice but to comply and suffer the consequences, Shinra sat in front of The Queen, getting a better look at her face.

Lisette wandered over to The Queen's side and placed something in The Queen's open and waiting palm. Before Shinra could see what it was, The Queen's fingers curled around it, hiding it from his view.

"Hold his jaw." The Queen ordered.

Lisette complied without a word, grabbing Shinra's jaw with cold fingers.

"Open your mouth, Shinra."

For once, Shinra struggled. He didn't want this. He knew what they planned on doing and he didn't want it to happen.

The Queen waited calmly, fingers still wrapped around what was held in her hand.

Lisette pried his jaw open just slightly with a harsh downward force and in that opening, Shinra felt a capsule shoved into his mouth.

Shinra fought his urge to swallow the drug, knowing full well its effects. 

His efforts were all for naught, and he swallowed. 

He felt a haze creep over his mind and his eyesight blurred. Lisette released him and moved a few steps back.

"What's your name?" The Queen purred.

"Kishitani Shinra."

"Who do you serve?"

"Only The Queen."

"What's your job?"

"To make sure Izaya never leaves the Castle."

"Good. For now, you will remain Izaya's roommate. You must fix your mistake and remove any doubt from his mind about this place." 

Shinra nodded.

"I understand, Queen."

The Queen smiled.

Lisette merely watched the whole scene unfold, face impassive. 

Shinra left after Lisette unlocked the door, returning to his dorm only to find it empty.

"Are you sure about this, Queen?" Lisette asked after she had relocked the door behind Shinra.

"Of course. With you here, I have no reason to worry. Izaya will never leave here."

Lisette blinked, observing The Queen's expression.

"Might I inquire as to why you are so particular about Izaya?" She dared to query.

"Well, you will find out in due time. Just know that at least he can never leave here."

"Understood, Queen."

"You can go now, Lisette. The other witches might be missing you."

"Thank you." Lisette bowed and, upon unlocking the door again, left.

The Queen sat still for a while, humming to herself.

"I was too nice today. Next time, I'll have to be more strict. People must know they cannot mess with Izaya. He cannot go Outside, not again." She muttered quietly to herself.

She stood, dusting herself off, and after surveying the room once, she also left. When she exited the room, she locked the door from outside so no one could go in. Then, the door disappeared, appearing to just be another wall of the Castle.

Satisfied, The Queen returned to her chambers.

———

Lisette licked her lips, letting it sink in what she just saw. She had planned to get close to The Queen and learn a bit more about the Castle, but she hadn't quite expected this. Considering what she had seen so far, she had to wonder if it would get worse.

What if The Queen used that drug on Taya or Wren or Emberly or any of the witches? What if she already had? 

Were they already following unconscious orders? 

The thought was disturbing.

The Castle was more dangerous than she thought.

Perhaps she should leave the Castle and go Outside, but it would be risky if she tried to get Izaya to come with her.

If she wanted to help him leave, she should probably wait until The Queen trusted her to the point she wouldn't suspect her. 

But the important thing would be to get her fellow witches to leave. 

Meaning she would have to act before the same thing that happened to Shinra happened to them.

———

Elizabeth was waiting calmly on the couch when The Queen came back, her face a blank mask as always, blinking her different colored eyes at The Queen disinterestedly.

"Go alright?" The attendant slurred.

The Queen smiled brilliantly at her assistant.

"Wonderfully, but next time I won't be so gracious." She purred, slinking over to the couch to sit next to Elizabeth.

Her assistant nodded unenthusiastically.

"I'm glad, sister Queen." Elizabeth stated, lightly patting The Queen's shoulder. 

"Now, I think it's a good time to talk to Izaya about the Purification. I think he'll be fascinated with the Cave." The Queen beamed happily and grabbed Elizabeth's hand.

"Elizabeth, dearest, could you go get him for me?" 

Elizabeth nodded, fiddling with a strand of her black hair.

"Of course, sister Queen," She said, standing and stepping towards the door. "But I think there is something else you should worry about."

The Queen frowned.

"What is it, dear? You can tell me." The Queen soothed, also standing to step towards her younger sister, close confident, and assistant. 

"Your twin sister."


	8. The Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Queen takes Izaya to see the Cave and he finally learns some things. He also manages to piss of The Queen, something that has never happened before...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update because I already started writing chapter 13...? Wow, I’ve written a lot for this. Also, the later chapters are a bit longer (about 100-400 more words), so that’s exciting.
> 
> See notes at the end for stuff related to the story, btw
> 
> This is way too fun to write...
> 
> But here’s the next chapter, so enjoy~
> 
> ~QS

Izaya followed behind Elizabeth in a stifling silence because the unexpressive woman never said a word the whole way to The Queen's Chambers. She pushed open the doors with a grandiose gesture and held it open for him to walk in first, before she stepped inside herself and closed the door behind them.

"Izaya! How are you?" The Queen asked, smiling from her seat on her throne.

Izaya bowed slightly before he sat in a chair that Elizabeth brought over facing The Queen.

"I'm well, Queen." He answered, watching Elizabeth hovering nearby out of the corner of his eye.

The Queen noticed her attendant just hanging around awkwardly.

"Elizabeth, you can wait outside over there," The Queen gestured to her left towards a side door to her Chambers. "Actually, can you go check on Amanda for me? And bring Nadia with you." 

Her attendant bowed lowly, acknowledged The Queen with a typical monotone affirmation, before she disappeared out the side door.

"What did you want me for, Queen...?" Izaya asked once Elizabeth was gone.

"Oh, yes! About that, I wanted to show you something," The Queen stood, stepping down the steps to extend a hand to Izaya, who accepted it skeptically. "Come with me..."

Izaya followed The Queen as she confidently strolled through the hallways of the Castle. 

"Here it is!" She hummed, unlocking the wooden door she stopped in front of and swinging it open. 

She had Izaya go in first before she stepped in after him and closed the door behind them.

The room was dark, with no artificial light sources, but from what Izaya could make out, every part of the room seemed to be blue with the occasional gleam in some corner.

"Welcome to the Cave," The Queen purred, walking across the floor, heels clicking against the surface. "Where the Purification takes place!"

Izaya followed after The Queen, flinching with every step because he felt like the floor would break from underneath him and he belatedly realized the walls, ceiling, and floor were all made of glass. 

"Excuse me, Queen, but I still don't understand what the Purification is." Izaya said.

"Of course you don't, since I haven't told you yet," The Queen said, reaching the far wall and looking at some sort of button panel. "The Purification is meant to fortify the Castle's protection spell and protect all of us from the Shadows of Fate." She pushed one of the buttons and after a loud grating noise, the ceiling to the Cave opened slowly. 

Since it was night outside and the moon was out, the moonlight beamed down into the room and light up the whole room with silvery yellow light.

The whole room glittered brightly. It was honestly breathtaking. Izaya was only able to silently take it in, fascinated.

"Beautiful, right? This is moonlight. It's one of the best ways to keep the Shadows of Fate away. For some reason, they avoid moonlight, especially when it's used as part of a protection spell. They even avoid it Outside a bit." The Queen frowned momentarily, before she shrugged it off with a strained smile and closed the ceiling again, returning the Cave back to its darkened state.

"How come I've never been involved in the Purification?" He asked, turning towards The Queen.

She sighed.

"You never needed to be, you already have great resistance to the Shadows of Fate, much to their chagrin. However, if you went Outside, I couldn't assure the same." She walked back towards the entrance, holding the door open.

Izaya walked over towards her.

"Are the Shadows that dangerous?"

The Queen stiffened completely, her lips twitching.

"Let's hope you never have to find out." The Queen hissed, practically pushing him out the door and locking it after she exited as well.

Confused, Izaya followed The Seething Queen as she walked briskly back to her quarters. 

She stopped outside of her side door to question the guard standing there.

"Have they come back yet?" She snapped.

"Yes, Queen, but they went back out to complete another task."

"Which one?" She demanded.

"Erm, I think the one with the doctor." The guard answered, looking intimidated by The Angry Queen. 

The Queen relaxed.

"Come inside, Izaya. If you have any more questions, you can ask them." 

———

As soon as Izaya had left her Chambers, Elizabeth and Nadia entered.

"You'll want to hear this, Queen." Nadia said as soon as she walked in, shutting the door behind herself and Elizabeth. 

"What is it, Nadia?" The Queen asked skeptically, tiredly sitting on her throne, anger still throbbing in her veins.

"We saw Shizuo. The witches lied to us, he's not dead. I don't doubt he won't try to leave with Izaya again." Nadia answered.

The Queen growled.

"They'll pay dearly for lying to me. I should have never trusted them in the first place. Nala was close with Katilyn, and Katilyn's sister is a fucking traitor to the Castle," She stood, turning her focus to Nadia. "Call Nicole here, I'm sure they won't mind if it's her." 

Nadia bowed and left. Elizabeth started to follow, but The Queen stopped her.

"Elizabeth, are you certain about what you said before? You really think she's going to do something?"

"What has ever stopped her? She's not like me and Nadia, who wish to repent for not helping you back then. You shouldn't have had to go through that. Nameless doesn't believe you and she has no sympathy either since she's never been affected by the Shadows."

"Ah, you're the only one who understands, Liza! No one understands what I'm protecting them from!" The Queen sobbed.

Elizabeth nodded curtly. 

"Please be careful and take care of yourself...Briya." 

———

"You're sure about doing things like this?" Nadia asked, when she was rejoined by Elizabeth.

"We owe it to her. You know what happened to her before." 

"We should be trying to fix her, not just watch her," Nadia hissed, shaking her head. "You know she's only getting worse!" 

"You think I don't know that! I know what she used to be like more than you do, Nadia. We have to preserve this because this is the only way to protect her." She insisted.

"I'm not so sure, Elizabeth, but for now, I'll support you. Are you sure about messing with the witches? It will upset the nature and balance of the Castle..." Nadia sighed.

"Well..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Briya- Possibly The Queen’s real name or just an affectionate way Elizabeth calls her.
> 
> Nicole- Noah’s sister and a witch. She is one of two of the second most powerful type of witch alongside Nala. The one first most powerful type of witch is Cheryl, but she secluded herself leading Nala to become the witches ‘leader’. Nicole dorms with Nala but had nothing to do with the Shizuo incident (either one) since her brother never told her about it. 
> 
> Nala- the ‘leader’ of the witches since Cherly secluded herself after her (Cheyl’s) husband was murdered. Nala dorms with Nicole, who mostly just focused on writing her books and chatting with her friend Irene (or hanging out with her older brother). Nala had a younger brother (Coren) who supposedly died in an accident, she also has an older brother who she’s not close with, and a younger cousin, Eric, whom she’s quite fond of. She was very upset when her close friend, Katilyn, left with her younger sister Mina after the fiasco between Mina and The Queen. 
> 
> Nameless- The Queen’s younger twin sister. Blonde hair and green eyes. Real name unknown. Used to live in the Castle and used to be in Elizabeth’s position (ie, the closest to The Queen). Has been Outside.
> 
> List of witches that have appeared or will likely appear or be mentioned-  
> Lisette  
> Wren  
> Taya (Lisette’s older cousin)  
> Ava   
> Emberly (Ava’s cousin)  
> Serena  
> Nevaeh  
> Neoma  
> Nala  
> Nicole  
> Cheryl  
> Emilie  
> Elva  
> Irene  
> Astoria (‘Tori’)


	9. The One Who Would Have Been

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shizuo is still free from the witches and his wanderings lead him to Commonplace, the business and shopping district of the Castle, where he runs into an old friend...

_"Do you know who Izaya is?"_

Shizuo didn't even realize the words had slipped out of his mouth until he noticed the odd glance the woman was giving him.

"Everyone knows Izaya, he's rather...infamous. Why?" The brunette woman eyed him warily, readjusting her grip on the papers she was carrying.

"Do you know where he is?"

The woman paused to consider.

"You can check his dorm, but I'm pretty sure only his roommate is there."

"Oh, do you have-"

"Also, who the hell are you? You never answered my question. I've never seen you before, are you from the Outside?" The woman shuffled her papers almost nervously, eyeing him warily.

Shizuo wasn't even vaguely surprised she had no idea who he was. No doubt it had something to do with The Queen and that incident that had occurred before.

"I'm not-"

He didn't get to finish when another woman crept up behind the brunette and startled her into dropping her papers.

"Namie, we should go." The woman, whom Shizuo vaguely recognized as Vorona, poked the brunette woman in the side.

"Vorona, you scared me, what the hell!" Namie snapped, bending down to pick up the scattered papers with Vorona also going to help.

Shizuo ended up deciding to ignore them and went down the hall to his left because he just had some kind of inexplicable feeling.

After walking for what felt like an eternity but was only a few short minutes, he'd ended up in Commonplace, the work and shopping district of the Castle, because the Castle was actually comprised of several districts, including the Academy (and the Academy dorms), Commonplace, the Residential District (for those who didn't go to the Academy and thus didn't stay in the Academy dorms), and The Queen's Court.

Commonplace, unlike the darkened halls of the Academy, was brightly lit by magic orbs created by the witches that were hung from the ceiling.

Shizuo held a hand over his eyes to shade them from the blinding light as his eyes adjusted to the drastic change in lighting.

He ended up mindlessly walking up and down the streets and alleys of Commonplace, hoping to spot Celty amongst the crowds.

He was just starting to get tired, preparing to give up when someone grabbed his arm and dragged him behind on of the buildings.

Shizuo felt relief wash over him when he recognized Celty, dressed in a flowing black dress, holding one hand over his mouth and a finger to her lips. She glanced left and right before she stepped back.

She withdrew a piece of parchment from her satchel she had with her and scrawled something in black ink.

{Shizuo, why are you here? It's dangerous for you to be walking around so carelessly! The Queen seems to be on high alert because I can't even talk to Shinra...I think something has happened to him...However, I'm relieved...I'd heard rumors that you were dead...}

"A little late for that," Shizuo muttered. "I ran into Elizabeth and some other guard earlier. I'm sure they've already told The Queen about me."

{Shizuo! How could you be so careless...! It's already bad enough Izaya doesn't remember anything...And if The Queen found out Shinra and I still do, then...I fear she might have already dealt with Shinra...What if he's dead!}

Shizuo could see the distress in his mute friend's eyes as panic crept across her gentle features.

"Celty, calm down. I'm sure he's fine, even if The Queen did something, she doesn't normally kill the people she doesn't like, she..." He trailed off, wincing at a sudden memory that came back to him. He suddenly felt dizzy and cursed the witches for keeping him drugged for who knows how long.

When he starts to fall, Celty dashes forward to catch him, stopping his inevitable faceplant.

The mute helps him lean back against the wall, eyeing him nervously.

{What happened to you, Shizuo? You look awful...Where have you been anyways?}

"Dunno, a few of the witches were involved, they kept drugging me to unconsciousness. I don't know what they were planning but they were going behind The Queen's back so that can't be good."

Celty frowned, but before she could write a reply, she stiffened, sensing a dangerous presence nearby. She gestured to Shizuo for him to hide and keep quiet.

The blonde nodded, slipping away from her sight.

"Oh, if it isn't the mute Celty, what are you doing all alone here?" A female voice cooed, before two witches appeared, one Shizuo recognized as the one who had been with Serena, Nevaeh, and the other he didn't.

The one who had spoken, an olive-skinned woman adorned in white and gold robes like a Greek goddess, stepped up to Celty, a callous smile tugging at her lips.

{What do you want, Neoma? You shouldn't skulk about like this lest The Queen's guards get the wrong idea about you.}

Neoma laughed, patting Celty's head so as to belittle her.

"Oh darling, as much as she'd like to believe otherwise, The Queen needs the witches in order to maintain the Castle. I have nothing to fear from her." Neoma chittered, brushing off Celty's words.

Nevaeh chimed in casually, "Besides, we know things about The Queen she wouldn't want getting out, it'd ruin her reputation. And we always have our trump card, even though she's bit uncooperative at times."

{Still, don't you have things you should be attending to? I myself have things to do, and if you don't work, you can't get anything here.}

"True," Neoma sighed, looking bored. "If you don't work, you can't get anything at any store in Commonplace. After all, you need your worker's ID for them to let you take anything."

"It's our deepest regret that we must part, but next time be more mindful of your surroundings before you so carelessly have a chat with someone who's believed to be dead." Nevaeh added, resting her head on Neoma's shoulder and pulling an almost believable pout. Had Celty not known these two witches for what they were, traitorous and backstabbing scumbags, she would have fallen for their act like all the rest.

Celty almost panicked when Nevaeh's words sank in, but the two were long gone by the time she snapped back to reality.

Really, no witch could ever be trusted.

She looked around for Shizuo, but her heart almost stopped when she couldn't find him, and with no voice she couldn't call out to him. Not like she could even if she wasn't mute, since that would only call attention to herself and the fact that Shizuo was alive and no longer trapped by the witches wherever they had kept him away, drugged into stupor.

Shizuo was gone, again, and Celty had no idea as to what his fate might be this time...She just hoped that she would see her friend again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of the characters mentioned are staying in the Academy dorms, where they have at least one roommate (Izaya with Shinra, Namie with Vorona, Nala with Nicole, etc etc) 
> 
> Commonplace and the Residential District are brightly lit unlike the Queen’s Court and the Academy. 
> 
> Celty is a mute rather than a dullahan and she writes on paper since the technology isn’t modern. 
> 
> The Castle has no currency, but as long as a person has a worker’s ID, they can take whatever they want from a particular store (within reason/the limits set by the store owner or manager). A worker’s ID is obtained once a person gets a job and everyone above a certain age is required to get a job. Kids can get stuff from stores even when they don’t have worker’s IDs as long as a parent signs off on a contract or delineates what the child is meant to obtain. A worker’s ID will be revoked if a person doesn’t attend work a certain amount of days without good reason. 
> 
> { and } are just meant to indicate what Celty is writing, as opposed to quotation marks or the usual [,] since I decided to reserve that for when she uses the PDA.


	10. Nameless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Castle goes into uproar when the banished twin sister of The Queen, known only as Nameless, returns from the Outside...

It started when the whole Castle seemed to be in uproar. At first, Izaya was confused when everyone was running around, shouting unintelligible gibberish, at least until he finally made out what some of them were shouting.

"Someone has come into the Castle from the Outside!" One yelled, sending others off to spread the news.

"It's her! It's her! We're all doomed!" Another shouted, sounding panicked.

But then, a hushed silence fell over everyone. Izaya turned to follow the petrified gazes to see The Queen smiling thinly, and another of her assistants aside from Elizabeth standing by her side.

"What's the matter, everyone? You can't arrange a warm greeting for my sister?" The Queen chided, but her words were met with disquieting silence.

The people running about had stopped, and many returned to their rooms or to their jobs or whatever else they were doing, unable to face The Queen.

With the hallway now mostly clear, Izaya had plain view of Elizabeth calmly leading someone down the hall, a twisted smile on her lips.

"I expected a warm welcome considering their Queen's wonderful sister, Nameless, has returned, but this is beyond my expectations," the woman with Elizabeth mused once she'd appeared in Izaya's line of sight. "Shall we throw an afterparty as well?"

"I tried to tell everyone that, but no one listened. Such a shame," The Queen tutted. "We'll have to just have a private chat in my Chambers, Nameless."

"Oh, that'd be lovely, but what about _him_? Is he coming along as well?" Nameless' gaze shifted abruptly to Izaya, narrowing infinitesimally, as a cruel smirk marked her face.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dear. I want a one-on-one chat with my beloved twin I haven't seen in years, is that so wrong?" The Queen cooed, smiling faintly.

"It's only been so long because you banished me, kicked me to the curb without mercy. Oh, mercy!" Nameless clutched her chest and extended a hand upward, but the twisted grin never left her face.

She sighed, placing her hands on her hips, tutting at the ground. The Queen's face was still unreadable.

"You made me this way. I used to be such a nice child. Look what's happened now? I leave you alone because you tell me too and then you make Elizabeth your right hand woman, ridiculous! I should never have left. Ah, but, I had to right? After conspiring so wickedly against you!"

"Shut up," The Queen snarled suddenly, silencing Nameless. "We're going, now."

"Ooh, scary." Nameless snorted, but she started following behind The Queen anyways, falling silent.

When she walked past Izaya, she shot him a glance, a demented smirk crossing her lips momentarily before vanishing without a trace.

The two were gone before Izaya could even begin to comprehend what had just happened.

"She's just acting. She's truly harmless, physically at least."

Izaya flinched at Elizabeth's cold voice close by, he hadn't even realized that she'd walked over towards him and now stood about three steps away from him, eyeing him blankly.

"Sorry, what?" He asked.

"Nameless. She's a professional liar, an actress if you will. I still would suggest you stay away from her. She's nothing but trouble."

"Why was The Queen acting so strange...?" He dared to ask, knowing there had been something off about The Queen's behavior, her actions and her tone...

"It's too long of a story and I have no right to tell it after what happened." Elizabeth's eyes narrowed as she stared off into nothingness, unseeing.

"Elizabeth! Stop dawdling, we need to get Nicole!" The other assistant Izaya had noticed that had been accompanying The Queen yelled, stalking over to Elizabeth crossly.

"Alright, Nadia, let's go." Elizabeth suddenly grabbed Nadia's arm and dragged her off, leaving Izaya alone to figure out what the hell was happening, because first of all, someone had come to the Castle from the Outside, and second of all, she appeared to be The Queen's sister.

Izaya wandered around the Castle to help himself think, ending up in Commonplace. The bright lighting and favorable temperature conditions helped him clear his mind and sort out his thoughts.

But of course, that was quickly interrupted.

Taya ran up to him, seizing his hand suddenly, breathing heavily, her eyes wild and darting about everywhere.

"W-We have to go, Izaya, there's no time. This is our only c-chance." She stuttered, trying to catch her breath in the moment's respite.

"What? Where? Why?" He tried to shake away her hand, but her grip tightened so much it was starting to hurt.

She took in a breath.

"If Nameless is here, it can't mean anything good. The Queen will redouble her efforts to keep you here forever." Taya gasped, still looking all around nervously.

"But why would I leave?" Izaya shook his head, still trying to wiggle out of Taya's grip.

"You don't understand! They took away Nicole! She's for sure at the Reformatory, dead or worse! We have to leave!" Taya started tugging on his hand to get the man to move, but he wouldn't budge.

"You're just assuming...Besides, what's the Reformatory?"

Taya became more panicked, begging and pleading with him in between her answers.

"You don't want to know, please, we need to go, while they're distracted. Please, we don't have time. Please, Izaya...They're going to hurt her...Damnit, we were so stupid, we all have to get out of here while we can!" The woman sobbed, her whole body trembling and her efforts were becoming more and more feeble. This man was unmovable and now they were all going to suffer except him.

Izaya still looked at Taya skeptically, even as she was sobbing and shaking and looking more terrified than he'd ever seen anyone else.

"Let him go, Taya." Both Izaya and Taya froze, not from the voice but from the sound of a gun cocking.

They both turned to look, only to find another witch, whom Taya knew was Nevaeh, pointing a gun at Taya's chest.

"N-Nevaeh, you bastard. Do you know what you're doing, you traitor! Nala will kill you for your treachery, you snake of a woman, I wo-" A gunshot rang out and she suddenly stopped, grabbing at her left shoulder as crimson blood pooled up from the wound, trickling down her skin and soaking into her clothes. She sank to the ground with an agonized cry, hissing curses at Nevaeh before she was knocked out cold by a clean and blunt hit to her head with the gun.

Nevaeh admired the crimson drops on her gun before she turned to Izaya with a predatory grin, ignoring the burning pain blossoming in her shoulder.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. Please stay away from the witches. The Queen fears they will betray her and harm you. Ah, and I'm included  in the list of people to stay away from so, be advised." She smiled dangerously, before grabbing the unconscious Taya by her hair and dragging her away.

Izaya was frozen to his spot, mind reeling. The sight of the blood suddenly springing forth in plentiful amounts making his stomach turn as it repeated in his mind.

Something twisted was happening behind closed doors, and even if it destroyed him, he would make sure to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nevaeh’s shoulder hurts after shooting Taya because when a witch betrays another witch or the collective witchs and she hurts them, she feels a similiar pain, though it doesn’t always happen (It usually depends on the type and severity of the violence). She likely betrays Taya in this case as extra insurance against The Queen’s wrath.
> 
> And a just a reminder but Nameless used to stay in tha Castle with everyone else and was even the person closest to The Queen, since most of the time she was at the Castle, Elizabeth wasn’t (she was Outside with the rest of The Queen’s direct family, except her mother and older brother). After a certain incident occured shortly after Elizabeth started visiting the Castle, The Queen banished Nameless and told her to never return. Her return was believed to mark the start of something terrible by the people of the Castle.


	11. Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shizuo wakes up injured and still weak from the drugs to find himself in the care of a doctor and nurse couple somewhere in the Residential District...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updating early again because of the site being down when I usually update tomorrow.
> 
> ~QS

When Shizuo woke up, his whole body ached with pain. He tried to sit up, but he felt insistent hands pushing him back down. The damp rag on his forehead was replaced with a fresh, warm one and he felt practiced hands examining his arms.

"Don't move unless I say so. I'm a nurse so don't worry. You're injured and I'm treating you. Who I am doesn't matter nor does who you are matter when it's a nurse and her patient." A soft, yet apathetic and almost monotonous voice said, answering some of the hazy questions forming in his mind, still affected by the drugs.

"Aron, bring me the bandage wraps, would you?" She called out softly.

"These?" Shizuo could only assume the other person was holding something up for the woman to see, since it was pretty dark wherever he was, with only a dim orange lamp to his left and a weak ceiling fixture up above, and he was lying down as well.

"Yes, now hand it here and stop asking stupid questions. You're supposed to be a doctor, or did you forget?" The woman asked scathingly.

"I haven't had enough sugar recently, since you won't let me get cake."

"You'll get fat, and then I'll file a divorce so if you prefer your cake over your wife, you can get out now." Shizuo wasn't sure whether or not the woman was serious or joking but her words seemed to do the trick because the man shut up and actually came over to help.

The woman swiftly bandaged his arms, and turned to Aron who had wandered over.

"Is there something we can do to combat the drugs?" She asked seriously.

"Aside from drug him some more? I'm not sure...Do you know what they gave him?" Her brunette husband scratched his chin in thought.

"As much as I love to chat with Wren and as much as I find her charming, I'd rather not admit that I knew that they were sneaking around behind The Queen's back, unless you want me to compromise us both." The woman sighed, standing up and wandering away for a second.

"Where are you going? Hey..." The man trailed off, following after his wife.

"Here, happy?"

At this point, Shizuo was sitting up so he could see the platinum blonde nurse shoving a plate full of cake at her husband begrudgingly.

"You were hiding this from me," her husband gasped softly in awe. "You spoil me dear!" Aron cheerfully ran off with the cake, smiling giddily.

"Whatever." The nurse muttered, trying to suppress a smile at her husband's sweet tooth and focusing back on her patient.

Shizuo stared back, trying to recollect his memories because he wasn't sure how he had gotten injured nor how he had ended up in the care of the doctor and nurse couple.

"Where did you find me?" He decided to ask.

"Commonplace...Behind my friend Artemis's shop. You were unconscious and injured, so someone must have attacked you or something before I came across you," the nurse paused. "Well, my close friend Danica found you, and brought you to me."

The woman shifted in her seat she'd pulled up by the bed her patient was lying on.

"She- Danica- said there seemed to be some sort of commotion a little ways away between two witches and that mute girl...Do you know what was going on?" She asked hesitantly, not because she was afraid of angering Shizuo or anything, but she thought that maybe she didn't want to know because getting caught up with the witches never led to any good (she was still wondering how the hell Nai and Noah did it, even if Nicole, Noah's sister, was a witch), and she felt pity for her patient who'd been drugged to oblivion for whatever reason by at least a few of the witches, namely Wren that she knew of.

"Celty...Do you know if anything happened to her?" Shizuo hadn't meant to disregard the nurse's question, but when she mentioned Celty, he had to make sure she was okay, because if she had gotten hurt because of him-

"Danica said the witches ended up leaving her alone. I'm sorry but I don't know any more than that." She answered honestly. After all, she wasn't one for sneaking around and was often described, not wrongly, as being blunt. She also didn't see any reason to lie to her patient nor to hide anything from him, unless it came to herself. He didn't need to know who she was. What mattered was that she had helped him, and was keeping him out of predatory, watchful eyes who were determined to either kill the man or at least make sure he never sees Izaya, _ever_.

"I see...Thank you." He mumbled, suddenly feeling exhausted.

Shizuo felt his shoulders slump, wincing at the pain and discomfort the action caused him, but he could still hope that his friend was alright.

The nurse felt a pang of sympathy for the weak blonde, understanding since she didn't want to think about how she would feel if she didn't know Aron or Danica were safe...

She sighed, mentally berating herself for her emotional weakness when she had a patient to take care of, so she resumed her professional air.

"Are you injured anywhere else? I only noticed the injuries on your arms, but if you are injured elsewhere, please let me or Aron know...For now, I'll leave you to get some rest and recover your strength, but don't you even **_dare_** try to leave or go anywhere else or I swear on my life, I will make you suffer hell. You don't cross a doctor and get away with it." The woman took on a very believably threatening tone and Shizuo felt a shiver run down his spine at her piercing, cold pale blue gaze staring him down with a fierce intensity.

He nodded feebly and she smiled all business-like.

"I'm glad we have reached an understanding," the woman waved a hand and the light to his left turned off, leaving the room almost completely dark aside from the light dangling from the ceiling. Her voice softened and she continued speaking when she was certain the man was drifting off into either sleep or unconsciousness, "My name is Edith, be sure to remember that after I've been made to pay for my sins."

The nurse smiled sardonically at herself, checked one more time that the blonde had fallen asleep, before she joined her husband in the other room.

Aron set down his fork as soon as she came into the kitchen, bringing his dishes to the sink before he sat back down to talk with his wife.

"Edith, are you sure about not telling anyone? I'm sure Wren or Emberly will come bother you about whether or not you've seen him once they find out he's gone." Aron queried, concern for his wife inundating his voice.

"I can't let him leave when he's so weak, not when I'm a nurse," Edith murmured, sounding conflicted, voice taut with tired emotions. "I know I'll have to pay for it, whether it's by the hands of the witches or the hands of The Queen's servants won't matter, neither will be pleasant, but if it's a price paid for saving a person's life, I'm willing to pay it. I just don't want you involved, Aron. Please stay with Dani or Artemis. You shouldn't get hurt because of my selfishness."

Aron looked at the tired blonde, noting the dark bags under her eyes and her slumped posture, knowing how unusual such visible weakness was for the prideful woman, and he sighed softly.

"Edith, I'm not going to leave you. We can face this together, don't face this alone. You've already done so much for Danica. You think you're only hurting yourself by doing this, but you're hurting all of us. If you really want to help him, we'll have to do more than shelter him here..."

Edith raised her head, eyes widening at the possible implication Aron was making.

"You mean...?" She breathed in surprise, heart clenching when her husband nodded.

"We have to bring Izaya to Shizuo, or vice versa."


	12. Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisette freaks out about Taya’s injury and takes out her anger on Izaya. Things go south very quickly...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All I will say is poor Lisette...
> 
> ~QS

* * *

He had been returning to his dorm when he heard the angry footsteps storming after him. He paused, turning just in time to see the ashy-eyed, small witch named Lisette storming towards him, face red and arms trembling.

"Izaya, what the hell!" He heard her familiar voice yell, twisted with anger and rage. "Taya's going to die because of you, you bastard!" The girl made it to his side, hitting him repeatedly in frustration.

For a moment, Izaya was so stunned he couldn't even react, but then he grabbed Lisette's wrists to stop her from hitting him anymore. Not that it hurt, but it did piss him off and he didn't want to hurt the young witch while she was just taking out her grief-fueled anger on him.

"I didn't hurt her," he uttered softly, not sure whether Lisette would listen to him or believe his words, but he figured he could try. "Lisette, I can't help you unless I know what's going on...Why did she want me to leave the Castle? I don't want anyone get needlessly hurt because of me."

Lisette looked up at the sincere look on Izaya's face through her tears and the stray strands of hair sticking to her face.

"B-Because everything here is a lie...The Queen is manipulating everything...I don't know why, but it seems to have something to do with you...She doesn't want you to leave, so we were going to try to take you Outside...It's not safe for us anymore...We've been found out...after he escaped..." Her words were broken up by sniffles and sobs, as more tears leaked from her eyes and trailed down her face, making Izaya almost pity the poor girl who seemed so emotionally overwhelmed.

But then her last words sunk in. Who had escaped? What was she talking about?

He grabbed onto her shoulders, shaking her fiercely.

" _Who_ escaped? What are you talking about?" He almost snarled, barely containing himself at the prospect of finally getting some answers.

Lisette looked utterly terrified, but he didn't have the time to feel bad.

"A-A blonde man we were keeping an eye on because The Queen was told he was dead...She- The Queen-wanted to keep him away from you b-because of w-what happened before...when you two...were close..." Lisette bit her lip, trailing off because she saw the blank look of horror on Izaya's face.

Had he remembered something...?

Her hopefulness was quashed in the next instant though, when his grip on her shoulders tightened painfully and she let out a yelp of pain.

Lisette had to have been talking about the man he'd seen in that hospital room with Wren and Noah and it made sense if Lisette knew about him since Wren was also one of the witches and she seemed close with her.

"Who is _that_ man?" He growled, locking eyes with the fearful, trembling Lisette.

"I-I don't know, I swear! I was t-too young when the _incident_ happened, so I honestly don't know!" She cried, trying to pull away from the dangerous man before her, worried her shoulders were going to bruise if they hadn't already.

Izaya released her with an angry snarl and as soon as he had, she fled, running as fast as she could manage, tripping over herself several times in her haste, trying to reach Wren and the injured Taya before the dark-haired man changed his mind and chased after her.

For a while, Izaya paced up and down the hallway, conflicted. He _knew_ something was going on, but he still couldn't be sure that he could trust the words of a witch over The Queen who had always been so kind to him and had protected him. She had, after all, taken him under her wing after he arrived at the Castle when he was still quite young, though he couldn't remember it, not what the Outside was like or how he had ended up at the Castle, who had brought him there if anyone had...

He snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Shinra walking over to him.

"Shinra...? What's the matter?" His roommate looked strange, with his eyes unfocused and a blank look on his face. Izaya hadn't seen Shinra much since they had last talked, since Shinra hadn't been at their dorm the past few days.

When he called out to the man, he seemed to snap out of his trance, and he smiled at Izaya.

"Oh, sorry, Izaya, I was spacing out," Shinra said, sounding chipper. "How have you been?"

"Fine, you?"

"Very well, except I haven't seen my wonderful Celty recently! It's a true tragedy." The man huffed a sigh, looking more than a little deflated.

Izaya wasn't sure how to reply, so he politely excused himself from their conversation, and wandered down the halls like he sometimes did when he needed to clear his mind.

He felt someone grab his hand suddenly, and he turned in surprise to see it was Lisette.

"Come with me, quickly. Elizabeth and some of the guards are looking for you." She hissed quietly.

Izaya shook her off much more easily than he had with Taya, but he didn't leave. He stared Lisette down, trying to figure out whether she was actually trying to help him, but he was interrupted when he heard Elizabeth call out to him.

"There you are, Izaya! The Queen wants to see you now that she's done with her chat with Nameless."

Lisette froze, knowing she still hadn't been spotted, so she hoped she could still escaped unnoticed. Her heart pounded as Elizabeth and a few guards accompanying her came closer.

"I'll be right there." Izaya replied in assurance.

Lisette made to leave but Izaya saw her move out of the corner of his eye and he seized her wrist, his eyes telling her not to move an inch.

Elizabeth was finally close enough to see Lisette and the young witch knew her chances were ruined, feeling a spike of resentment towards Izaya. Elizabeth told Izaya to go on ahead, indicating he leave Lisette behind.

When Izaya left along with the guards, Elizabeth looked over darkly at the young witch.

"You knew." She said simply, and Lisette felt her world crumbling, knowing what awaited her.

"The Queen will speak with you first, because ultimately she will decide what happens to you. You should know Nicole is in the Reformatory but I doubt your fate will be so kindly considering your treachery and that Nicole wasn't as involved in your mess." Elizabeth added after seeing Lisette shrink away in discomfort.

She cursed Izaya for making her stay, even if he had had no idea what that meant or what he had done, but she couldn't help the resentment and anger, because she could sense Taya's pain and Nicole's anguish, Nala's agony and Wren's frustration. She could sense Irene's hatred (she had always been the closest to Nicole) and Nevaeh's self-destruction, Neoma's mischief and Ava's despair (there was little she could do when she couldn't even walk). She could sense what (almost) every witch was feeling, could tell who she could trust and who she could not trust of the witches and it was almost enough to drive her mad.

Her mind reeling, she barely even registered Elizabeth leading her to her inevitable doom and her whole body trembled, betraying her because she wasn't as strong as she made herself appear. In truth, most of the witches were really fragile creatures, with some already broken and others in the process of breaking.

She cried and stumbled along as Elizabeth half-dragged her towards The Queen's Chambers for her to meet her fate. Karma was a _bitch_.


	13. Gain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shizuo and Aron talk until Edith comes back...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have posted this yesterday but I didn’t really like this chapter and was debating scrapping it, but I didn’t so here it is...
> 
> ~QS

After resting for a while, Shizuo felt much better, revitalized and refreshed for once because he wasn't being drugged into oblivion for what he only assumed was the sadistic amusement of the witches. He sat up and let his eyes adjust to the lighting.

When he gazed around, he realized it was much brighter in the room and that the blonde nurse (had she told him her name?) was nowhere in sight. He figured out that it was so much lighter because the window curtains were pulled back and the bright light of the Residential District (the only place he could be, aside from Commonplace, just based on the brightness of the lights) was shining through, illuminating the room in a soft glow.

"How are you feeling?" Shizuo looked to the doorway when he heard Aron speak, getting a better look of the man now that it was much easier to see.

The man was fairly tall, with a lithe frame, messy brown hair, kind teal eyes, and had a pair of glasses tucked in the pocket of his shirt.

"I'm fine, but where's the blonde nurse?" Shizuo answered, remembering that he hadn't seen her around.

Aron scratched his cheek.

"She had to run an errand, but she'll be back soon. And you're sure you're fine? It hasn't been that long..." The man looked skeptically at Shizuo.

Shizuo nodded.

"Yeah, but it's probably more due to the fact that I'm away from the witches."

Aron frowned, wincing.

"I don't know what they were thinking, unless they're planning the same thing as before. Maybe they were waiting for Nameless to come back." The doctor muttered, checking Shizuo's condition despite the man's claims that he was fine.

Shizuo stiffened, turning his full attention to Aron.

"Nameless? But she was banished, why would they wait for her? She wouldn't come back, would she?" Shizuo said, almost panicky, his pupils blown wide at the thought that Nameless would come back. Even if she had tried to help before, he didn't trust her and he was honestly a little scared of the woman.

Aron seemed to notice Shizuo's distress and he nervously licked his lips.

"She's already back...She came back yesterday before Danica found you and brought you here." Aron wanted to add more, but he stopped himself, not wanting to mention where his wife was in case it would endanger her.

Shizuo felt his heart slow and he stated at Aron in blatant disbelief.

"Nameless is here? Again? Why?" Shizuo gaped, and his thoughts spiraled back to what happened the last time he got involved with Nameless, where he ended up getting drugged into unconsciousness by the witches afterwards.

Nameless' proposition had been simple, for Shizuo and Izaya to leave the Castle. Although they hadn't known her reasons for suggesting it (and they still don't), she'd been very persuasive on why they should go Outside. What they hadn't known was how miserably they would fail and everything would be ruined. Izaya was taken away and Wren had told him that his memories of Shizuo were gone and that he didn't remember anything about the incident.

If Nameless thought to do that again...

His thoughts were interrupted when the nurse burst into the house and rushed into the room, out of breath and lightly bleeding.

"S-Shizuo, you need to come with me. I found Izaya and we don't have much time. We only have a small window of opportunity for you to talk to him."

"Edith, why are you bleeding?" Aron sounded horrified, looking over the scratches on Edith's face and arms.

"Not now, Aron, we have to leave here for now." The blonde woman grabbed a cardigan and shrugged it on and Aron begrudgingly helped Shizuo up, upset that his wife was hurt.

Edith led the way out the front door, glancing around carefully before leading them across the street and back into Commonplace.

"Where are we going?" Aron hissed quietly.

"The edge of the Academy near Commonplace." Edith answered in a soft whisper, eyes narrowed as she carefully watched for any signs of danger.

"Are we meeting an intermediary?" Aron queried as they followed Edith around the outskirts of Commonplace towards the Academy.

Edith paused, taking a quick breath.

"Yes. We're meeting three witches." She said, all while knowing her words wouldn't be taken well.

Shizuo stopped and narrowed his eyes at the blonde nurse.

"We're meeting _witches_? You know what they did, don't you?"

Edith shot him a sharp glance.

"We can't get help from anyone else and if things are the same as last time, their goal is the same as well. But who knows if they remember it."

"Who are we meeting?" Shizuo asked, but he didn't have to wait for Edith to answer when he spotted two witches waiting for them at the end of the hallway in the Academy. One with a green snake curled around her neck and the other fiddling with something in her hands.

He hadn't seen either of the two when he was being kept drugged, but he was still suspicious.

"Where's Emilie?" Edith queried when she walked up to the two witches. Aron and Shizuo followed behind her more hesitantly.

The one with a snake on her shoulders smiled thinly.

"She couldn't join us, but my lovely snake was able to." She purred.

Edith said nothing and the other witch seemed uncomfortable, slipping whatever had been in her hands into a pocket.

"Let's just get going, Elva. The others might get mad if they find out." She muttered, scanning the area.

"Of course they will, I promised not to do anything. But that didn't include if and when he escaped. And that brings us to now," she smiled coyly at Shizuo. "Where we're helping Shizuo and Izaya meet."

"I suppose you never said that, but I'm more in danger since I'm part of the Jashi clan." The other witch muttered, turning to look over her shoulder nervously.

"Thank you for helping us, Astoria." Edith said, smiling politely at the other witch.

"Whatever," Astoria mumbled. "Follow me, Shizuo. Edith, stay here to keep an eye out with Elva. You, also come with me," she held out an arm for the snake and the snake unwrapped itself slowly from Elva's neck and slithered across Astoria's arm and settled on her shoulders. "And Edith, what about him?" The witch indicated Aron.

"He'll be heading back to Commonplace to look for Irene and get her to help since I heard Nicole is in danger."

"What?" Aron growled, ready to argue with his wife because she was doing exactly what he didn't want her to do. "I'm not-"

"Just shut up and go," Edith hissed in his ear when she turned him back the way they had come. "If the witches betray us and we're all here, no one will ever know. Besides, Irene's our best bet for reliable help. She cares too much about Nicole to betray us."

Aron said nothing but walked off on his own, still loathe to leave his wife there but he knew she wouldn't listen to him and that she had a point.

"Shall we go, Shizuo?" Astoria smiled and the snake fixed its beady black eyes on Shizuo in an unnerving way, as though it could read his mind.

When he nodded and the witch started leading him along, he finally asked the question that had been bothering him for a long while.

"Why did you guys drug me and tell The Queen I was dead?" He asked.

Astoria paused for a moment, but kept walking.

"You're more useful to us alive and we didn't want you doing anything rash that could jeopardize our plan." She answered, and turned a corner.

"What plan?"

Astoria stopped.

"I...I don't know." She said, but then she started running and Shizuo had to chase after her in order to follow her.

He slammed to a halt when he saw her stop up ahead, on her knees and screaming in agony. Nevaeh was there, her hand still wrapped around the hilt of a knife buried into Astoria's shoulder. There was a four-way intersection closer to him than they were, with Astoria being straight up ahead.

"S-Shizuo, go right, right! Hurry! That's where-" she was cut off by another agonized scream when Nevaeh wrenched the knife downwards, ripping open the delicate flesh.

Shizuo looked away and took the closest right, trying to shake off the image of Astoria's skin ripping open around her shoulder and blood oozing out. He ran for a while until he came across an opening and saw a man staring blankly at a wall.

When he got closer, his heart sped up because he recognized the man.

"Izaya!" He breathed, finally getting to see him after so long.

The man turned, frowning for a second at the unfamiliar voice but he froze when he recognized the blonde as the one who'd been unconscious in that hospital room last time he had seen him.

"You...you're...? Do I know you?" Izaya asked, looking confused and bewildered.

So Izaya really didn't remember him. The Queen made quick work of those who defied her, Shizuo noted bitterly. The desire to leave the Castle so that he could be alone with Izaya surged back to him.

"My name is Shizuo, you used to know me, but I guess now you don't." He said, keeping his distance from Izaya.

Izaya walked a little closer towards Shizuo, studying him closely to see if he did recognize the man. He had seen glimpses of the man before he had ever actually met him in that hospital room, but he didn't think he'd actually met him before that. Aside from the strange glimpses and interesting dreams, of course. His face burned a little at the thought.

"I-"

"What is this! Izaya, who is this man?" The Queen's loud, cold, echoing voice froze Shizuo's blood and his feet to the ground.

"Queen! What's the matter? Did you need something else?" Izaya asked, confused by The Queen's reaction.

Shizuo turned away from Izaya and The Queen, but couldn't step away from where he was standing.

He could feel The Queen's cold glare on his back and he remained silent.

He felt someone grab his right wrist and pull him into a corridor he hadn't noticed before, keeping him out of The Queen's sight.

"Fuck, that was close." Emilie whispered.

Shizuo stared at the tall brunette woman who had appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

"Where the hell did you come from?" He gaped.

"Not important." She answered.

"And Astoria?"

"Fuck, don't talk about that right now. Ava called Emberly to come get her. I'm going to fucking kill Nevaeh, that bastard."

Shizuo focused back on Izaya and The Queen from where they hid.

"Why don't you come with me, Izaya, I just thought of something to talk to you about."

"Oh, okay..." Izaya shot one last glance at Shizuo, only to find that the man was gone. He shrugged it off, wondering if he'd imagined it all again and followed after The Queen, suddenly forgetting his distrust towards The Queen.


	14. The Catalyst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Queen and Nameless meet in The Queen’s Chambers to discuss things...

Elizabeth had been waiting. She wasn't sure for how long, but as soon as she'd casually pushed open the front doors of the Castle, exposing the interior to _real_ light, but nothing else due to the protective barrier around the Castle, Elizabeth had smiled and called out to her, making her presence known.

When the doors shut with a satisfying clank, she shuffled over to her younger _sister_ , grinning.

"Now this is unexpected. I hadn't expected an audience, yet alone you, Elizabeth." Nameless purred, grinning saccharinely at the emotionless doll that was Elizabeth.

The other woman shrugged calmly.

"I figured you'd show up soon, you always had the best and worst of timing," Elizabeth answered. "But we haven't the time for fond, idle chatter, The Queen will want to see you."

"Oh, yes, I'm sure," Nameless fawned, nodding with feigned seriousness. "After all, she must have missed me dreadfully after I tried to steal away the second most important thing from her, after, of course, first taking away _the_ most important thing." Nameless skipped closer to Elizabeth, fixing her burning green gaze on her sister.

"I don't know how you got close to _my_ sister, but I swear on the Shadows of Fate if you made her worse or hurt her in any way, I will make you die a slow, painful death so you can get an idea of the pain she felt when everyone turned their backs on her." Nameless hissed, before pulling back with a careless, catty smile on her face.

Elizabeth opted to ignore Nameless' words and began walking down the hallway, shooting one glance over her shoulder to confirm Nameless was following her.

She _had_ been affected by Nameless' words because she knew, she was one of few, what had happened to The Queen in the past to make her like this. But it wasn't her fault as much as Nameless tried to incriminate her. However, _Amanda_ , the sick fuck that she was and unfortunately the mother of Elizabeth and Elizabeth alone (because, yes, she was only The Queen's and Nameless' half-sister), had been the fire-starter so part of the blame fell on Elizabeth's shoulders, quite unfairly, it might be added.

The halls were mostly abandoned to neither of their surprise; both had heard the Castle go into uproar at the news that someone from the Outside had come into the Castle, and for those that remembered her, freaking out at the fact that Nameless had returned.

———

Nameless kept silent the whole walk to her sister's chambers, knowing her sister well enough to understand The Queen was seething, and just barely containing herself from lashing out.

She wasn't faultless when it came to the delicate matter of her sister and her mental state, but it'd been difficult for all of them Outside. None of them had had it easy, but The Queen had just happened to have it worse- was what Nameless would have liked to believe, but such wasn't the case. Of course, their bitch of a stepmother was behind everything her sister had suffered and that's why she couldn't understand why The Queen would allow Elizabeth so close to her when she was _that_ woman's daughter, but Nameless knew she was also just being bitter about nothing.

There had to be something she didn't know about, and it likely had to do with Amanda's disappearance from the Outside when Elizabeth decided to go to the Castle, after Nameless returned Outside after having been banished from its premises. Oh such a shame it was for her! Not. Unlike for her sister, the Shadows of Fate weren't some malevolent, sadistic creature, they were just there, co-existing.

Nameless snapped out of her thoughts when The Queen held open the door for her, coldly staring at her twin.

She entered and her older sister followed, after telling the guards to not let anyone, even Izaya or Elizabeth, disturb them.

The Queen sat down, but Nameless paced for a while, burning with questions.

"Why did you let Elizabeth close to you?" She demanded, itching to know because she didn't trust Elizabeth who was so damn hard to read.

"If her dragging her mother here as an olive branch doesn't justify it, what will?" The Queen responded cooly, standing and grabbing a teapot, calmly making tea for herself and her twin.

Nameless stopped pacing.

"What? She did that? Freaking weirdos..." She hissed, wandering over to her sister out of curiosity on what she was doing.

"Sit." The Queen ordered, her tone leaving no room for complaints, so Nameless sat at the table while The Queen brought over the teapot and two teacups.

"You still won't let Izaya leave?" Nameless murmured, watching her sister pour them each a cup of tea.

"You know there are several reasons why I don't." The Queen replied, holding out one of the cups for her sister. Nameless took it wordlessly, quietly pensive.

"You're only going to push him away in the end. You may not be hurting him now, but he'll get hurt eventually." Nameless sighed, swirling the cup in her hands as she remembered times long past before she stopped herself and sipped the tea, smiling softly.

The Queen was silent, staring at her own cup of tea for a while before she spoke.

"I don't know any other way." She admitted quietly, avoiding her sister's gaze, expecting her to be angry and not understanding, never understanding...

She flinched when her younger twin took her trembling hand gently, drawing The Queen's gaze to her sister's face.

"Briya, look what monsters we've become," she murmured, gently caressing The Queen's now calloused hand. She remembered the times before, held them dear even if for The Queen they were nightmares from hell. "The end of our game is nigh. It's about time, don't you think? It's why I came back. Let him go, please, sister."

Nameless wasn't surprised when her older sister snatched back her hand, eyes narrowing into a hardened glare.

"You know I can't let him leave," She spat, anger spiking. "Unless you truly don't care about me."

Nameless stared down at her tea, not wanting to meet The Queen's cold gaze.

"I just want you to be free. Can't we end this? Think about all the people we've hurt after relinquishing our names. Hasn't it been enough?" Nameless knew her pleas were meaningless, and as much as she wanted a peaceful resolution, she knew that this might be the only way for her sister to be at peace, to go back to being herself...

The Queen stood, turning away from her twin.

"They're only suffering because of what happened to me...See, if I'd just never been born in the first place, if you'd just let me die-"

"Don't say that!" Nameless snapped, leaping to her feet.

"I returned the favor since you saved my life first, can't you find something you enjoyed about living this life?" Nameless sounded heartbroken, pain ripping at her chest with the thought that saving her sister from death when they were still children had only caused her twin more suffering.

"It doesn't matter either way, Nameless. Do what you want, but I only wished you'd come sooner to end this. Why did you come so late?"

Nameless headed to leave, unable to face her twin who still had her back to her.

"Because I know how you want this to end, how you planned this to end, and I knew I wouldn't be able to stop you or convince you otherwise."

The door clicked shut and The Queen turned towards the door once Nameless was gone.

"So you knew?" The soft sigh that escapes her is accompanied by a sad tug at her lips, pulling them up in the image of a forlorn smile, accented by the furrowing over her brows and the despair flickering in the depths of her blue eyes that for too long had been dormant and dark.

The Queen picked up the teacups, staring down at them contemplatively before she threw them across the room at the wall, enjoying the temporary satisfaction she got from hearing the clinking of the glass shattering and watching the tiny pieces of fine, painted porcelain arc through the air and land on the ground. She flicked away the tears from her eyes as a twisted grin malformed her lips and a harsh, bitter laugh escaped her.

"I knew you would try to stop me." She growled, turning heel and placing a hand on a table to steady herself as vicious trembles wracked her body. She called for Elizabeth and sent her off to bring her Izaya. She needed to distract herself and talking idly with Izaya always helped. Letting herself relax on the couch on the chambers, she waited quietly, patiently for Elizabeth's return, erasing the grin from her lips for a distant and apathetic curve of her lips, just a hint of a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I originally wrote this, it ended when The Queen said, “So you knew” but I decided to add a little more.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed.
> 
> ~QS


	15. Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izaya’s talks with The Queen yield very few answers...

Izaya walked in silence with the guards, taking fleeting glances at the faces obscured by their helmets to see if just maybe there was a familiar face he didn't recognize. It was a persistent headache in the back of his mind who the man was that the witches were drugging into unconsciousness in the small hospital room. None of the guards matched the appearance, the messy dyed blonde hair, the soft, chapped lips, the slightly tan skin...and warm brown eyes, or at least that's what he saw in his dreams and those few times he'd sworn he'd seen the man walking around inside the Castle. 

When the guards opened the door for him and beckoned him inside, he was greeted with the sight of a much more informal Queen. She'd foregone her blue robe that normally sat atop her shoulders, her hair had come loose from its usual tight coils of an updo, and she was lounging on the couch rather than sitting on her throne. He spotted towards the door, just off to his right, a whole spatter of broken glass but he knew better than to comment on it. The Queen had, after all, talked to Nameless just before him and he figured the glass was a sign things hadn't gone well. 

The Queen perked up when she saw him, offering him a polite smile that didn't reach her eyes, which were soft with a long-forgotten sadness that had before never characterized the gentle and cold blues of The Queen's eyes. 

"Izaya, thank you for coming." The Queen's voice edges on worn out genuinity, a soft tiredness that would normally not slip past the eloquent poise The Queen emulated. 

"What did you want to talk to me about? Is everything alright?" 

The Queen's lashes dipped as she sat up straight against the cushion of the couch, blue eyes meeting reddish brown eyes. 

"Perfectly fine, I was just settling an old matter with Nameless. It's been a long couple of days leading up to her arrival," The Queen sighed. "She always had the worst of timing." She beckoned to the empty seat on the couch next to her.

"Please, sit. Make yourself comfortable. You look so awkward standing there, Izaya." The affection coating her tone like sugary perfection sounds a little strange coming from The Queen, but Izaya complies and sits next to The Queen.

Their conversation is mostly idle chatter, but at points it curved towards subjects that might have best been avoided.

"Queen, do you know of a blonde man with brown eyes within the Castle?"

The Queen stiffened for just a moment, her smile faltering for half a second before she chuckled lightly.

"Izaya, you know there are many within the Castle. I can't be sure with just that." She replied, her voice oozing amusement. 

"Well, he was in a hospital room in the Academy," The Queen cocked her head at this, a silent indication for him to continue. "There was a witch, Wren, and another man, Noah, and they were talking about drugging the man and a lot of other stuff...They mentioned some other witches like Lisette and Taya and how they were planning something..." Izaya trailed off at the deep set scowl forming on The Queen's face, wrinkling her forehead and creasing her brows.

The Queen seemed to snap out of it when she noticed Izaya has stopped talking and was staring at her, half in confusion and half in expectation.

"Oh, Izaya," her voice was whisper-soft, sounding almost pitying. "You know you shouldn't mess with the witches. If it involves the witches, it's best if you stay out of it..." 

"But that man-!" The Queen shushed him, abruptly standing and stalking to the front entrance to her chambers, two tall, wide oak doors and pulled one open with narrowed eyes. 

"Well," The Queen hissed, her face setting into a scowl. "I'm sure Nameless is ecstatic over this." 

Just as The Queen turned back and was going to shut the door behind her, Elizabeth called out something, inaudible to Izaya from where he was.

The Queen shot a glance over her shoulder at Izaya.

"We'll finish this later, for now, do as you like. I'll come seek you out when I'm free." She swept out of her chambers, the door shutting loudly behind her. Izaya stared after her, confused.

———

He decided just to wander the halls as he often did, to clear his head and try to figure out what was going on. He stopped suddenly, retracing his steps and turning to look at an empty wall where he was certain something had been before. He frowned, trying to recall what was missing with little luck. Just as he was about to turn to leave,

"Izaya!" He heard an unfamiliar (yet familiar?) voice call out, sounding joyous and relieved. 

He turned, frowning for a second at the unfamiliar voice but he froze when he recognized the blonde as the one who'd been unconscious in that hospital room last time he had seen him. For a while, he floundered to find any words because he hadn't expected to run into the man, not when the last time he had seen him the man was unconscious and drugged, and now he had a healthy sheen to his before pale skin and he seemed to be doing much better.

"You...you're...? Do I know you?" Izaya asked, looking confused and bewildered. 

The man looked momentarily taken aback, before he seemed to resign himself to Izaya's words.

"My name is Shizuo, you used to know me, but I guess now you don't." He said, keeping his distance from Izaya. The distance only made Izaya uncomfortable, thinking that if it was him, whoever he was, Shizuo, they should be close. His face began to tingle as he remembered some of the dreams he'd had but he pushed those thoughts away.

He walked a little closer towards Shizuo, studying him closely to see if he did recognize the man. He had seen glimpses of the man before he had ever actually met him in that hospital room, but he didn't think he'd actually met him before that. Aside from the strange glimpses and interesting dreams, of course. His face burned even more at the thought.

"I-" He opened his mouth to speak, but he never got to finish.

"What is this! Izaya, who is this man?" The Queen's loud, cold, echoing voice came sudden and abrupt. 

"Queen! What's the matter? Did you need something else?" Izaya asked, confused by The Queen's reaction. 

Izaya noticed Shizuo turn away from himself and The Queen, but couldn't be sure to guess as to why. 

"He's the one I mentioned before, Queen...What's the matter?" Izaya questioned again, wondering why The Queen was so agitated. 

The Queen smiled thinly.

"Why don't you come with me, Izaya, I just thought of something to talk to you about." 

"Oh, okay..." Izaya shot one last glance towards Shizuo, only to find that the man was gone. He shrugged it off, wondering if he'd imagined it all again and followed after The Queen, suddenly forgetting his distrust towards The Queen.

———

Nameless let out a quiet breath, pinching her fingers between her brows. Her heart rate slowed to normal and she wiped away the sheen of sweat beading on her forehead. She knew what kind of game she was playing with her sister and it wasn't pretty.

———

The Queen sat Izaya down, keeping him close, arms trembling ever so faintly.

"Izaya, do you trust me?" She whispered, sounding more like a frightened kid than an adult.

Unsure if he could find his voice, Izaya just nodded.

"Izaya," The Queen's voice cracked. "Do you want to leave?" Her eyes were fixed on something over Izaya's shoulder.

Izaya wasn't sure how to respond and when he remained silent, her grip on his shoulders tightened.

She pulled him close, sobbing and sounding broken.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, Izaya. I have no choice..." She murmured, brushing a trembling hand through his hair.

"What, what do you mean-" he stopped when something pricked his neck and his world went spinning.

———

"Izaya. Izaya, wake up!"

Izaya blinked sleep away from his eyes, swatting at the hand shaking his shoulder to find Shinra staring down at him from behind his glasses.

"It's just you, Shinra?" Izaya mumbled.

"Well, who else?" His roommate huffed, looking down at him.

"No one, I just had a strange dream. Has The Queen called for me?"

Shinra tilted his head before he shook his head.

"No, she's been pretty busy recently. With what's going on with her sister and all." 

Izaya nodded sleepily. 

"What about the witches?" He queried.

Shinra stared at him.

"What witches? Izaya, I think you're confusing reality with that dream you had." His roommate shook his head.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. It just felt so real."

"Dreams sometimes do that." Shinra nodded sympathetically. 

Izaya scratched at the back of his neck, still feeling something was off, but brushing it off as the lingering memory of his dream.


	16. End Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emilie and Shizuo meet up with some (term used very loosely) “allies”. 
> 
> His first meeting with the leader of the witches goes differently than he expected...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jashi clan- group of mostly witches and some others currently led by Madelaine, a non-witch and the adoptive mother of Emberly after Emberly’s mother left both the clan and the Castle. There is tension within about her successor, many wanted Ava before she became paralyzed waist down (some still prefer her because they think Emberly is too hot-headed and impulsive) and others wanted neither Emberly or Ava.

Emilie brought him back to a rendezvous point where a few others were other gathered; some Shizuo recognized like Noah, Wren, and Nai, others he didn't. He felt uncomfortable by their presence, but at the moment he had little choice, so he remained, but a little distant unlike Emilie who strolled up to the others.

"Astoria's not back yet?" Emilie queried, focusing her attention on the only witch in a wheelchair.

"Emberly has yet to return with her." Another witch spoke, one with a clear wound below her left shoulder still wrapped in bandages. Emilie nodded, frowning.

"I can speak for myself, Taya. I'm pretty sure Emilie was addressing me." The witch, presumably Ava since she was disabled, said a little sharply.

Taya bowed her head apologetically.

"I apologize. I meant no harm." She murmured sincerely.

"Taya, have you seen or heard from Lisette?" Wren spoke up, frowning and looking contemplative. Taya froze, and then shook her head. "What about anyone else?" Everyone affirmed negative. There was a sharp prickle in the air, only sensed by the witches and several of them flinched.

Taya's jaw went slack, her eyes widening with horror.

"No..." She breathed, and then before anyone could stop her, she ran off.

There was a suffocating silence until a different voice called out,

"How did things go?"

Shizuo turns at the familiar voice to see Edith rushing over to him, concern creasing features, and Elva following more slowly behind.

"I got to talk to him, but he didn't recognize me and The Queen interrupted us." He replied, a little overwhelmed by the visible concern of the normally cold nurse.

"I saved his ass." Emilie interjected.

"Good job, Em." Elva chirped, with perhaps a hint of sarcasm, when she finally reached the group. Emilie shrugged and ignored Elva's comment, muttering something quietly under her breath.

Ava's eyes lit up brightly and she waved at someone approaching in the distance. When Shizuo turned to follow her gaze, he saw a woman with dark ashen gray-black hair with an arm wrapped around Astoria's shoulders walking towards them, whispering softly to Astoria. Though she stopped when she came within earshot and shifted her attention from Wren to Ava to Elva, and then back to Ava.

"We should go to Nala. Something must be done about Nevaeh, and likely Neoma as well. Serena's already been dealt with, right? Or is she still with Nala?"

"She's been confined to an apartment in Commonplace," Wren answered, poking Noah lightly in the shoulder. "Where hopefully, The Queen can't get to her...For now."

"Emberly's right," a witch Shizuo didn't recognize chimed in. "We'll be better off going to Nala. But we should send someone after Taya. We shouldn't let her do something rash again and get hurt, or worse."

"What do you propose, Prim?" Ava queried, tilting her head in question.

"I'll go after her," a different witch interrupted, stepping forward from the darkness behind the rest of the witches, Noah, and Nai. "Astoria's injured and Emberly should stay with Ava, so I should go, as part of the Jashi clan."

Ava nodded, and confirmed with her cousin.

"Okay, I'll leave it to you, Aura."

The witch bowed lowly and left in the same direction Taya had run off in.

"Ava, I suggest you go with Emberly and see what Irene and Renata are doing. We can't let their efforts to protect Nicole end in vain." Emilie said, and a few of the others nodded.

"I understand." Ava answered coldly, eyes dark.

———

After parting ways with Noah, Nai, Edith, Ava, and Emberly, the remaining witches and Shizuo headed off to see their appointed leader, Nala.

Astoria groaned, gingerly holding a hand to her injured shoulder and walking close to Wren in case she needed support.

"We're so in for it." She hissed through clenched teeth.

"If you think that way, then you will be." Wren muttered, glancing at Astoria.

"We're here," Elva announced, knocking on a door. They were still on the Academy's grounds, but on their way, they'd taken routes Shizuo had never known about and thus hadn't run into anyone else, other than a few other witches, who made a point of avoiding them, except for two of them, who exchanged brief words with Elva.

"Come in." A tired voice called from within the room.

"Here we go, guys." Prim muttered as Elva pushed the door open to reveal a woman hunched over a large wooden desk, filling out papers, with stacks of other papers set across the surface of the desk. She glanced up once for just a brief moment before she leaned back straight in her chair and took in the sight before her.

"I didn't expect a whole entourage with you, Elva." The witch mused, pulling her dark hair free from the bun she'd has it in and pushing her chair away from the desk.

"We had some things we wanted to discuss with you, Nala." Elva replied evenly, barely even blinking under the weight of Nala's blue stare.

"Is that so?" She queried, voice hinting on displeasure, and she didn't move from the chair.

"First of all, we should do something about Astoria's injuries." Prim broke in, pulling Astoria into the room.

Nala sighed and finally stood, opening a drawer of her desk to extract a strange bottle. She glanced at it for a moment, her eyes darkening with...grief (?) before she held it out for Prim. The younger witch took it and began to leave, but stalled at Nala's question.

"Do you know how to use it?" She asked, voice tight.

Prim nodded and led Astoria out of the room, glancing once at Shizuo on her way out before the two of them were gone. The other witches then entered the room, along with Shizuo, and Emilie closed the door quietly.

Nala sat back down and focused back on Elva.

"So, what else? I see that Shizuo is here, and no longer somewhere we don't know where. But," She raised a brow as her eyes darkened with fury. "Because of your carelessness, they came and took Nicole. Do you know how I _felt_ when Elizabeth and Nadia just came here and led Nicole away, not knowing why? Nicole was likely the least involved, excluding Cheryl, so how am I supposed to react when my roommate, my fellow witch, my _friend_ is taken from me so soon after I lost my closest friend when Mina and the others left? Of all the ways things could have gone, having more _sympathy_ from _The Queen_ after all that has happened recently than from you all, I am not only astounded but disgusted." Nala was so enraged, her anger was almost palpable.

Wren cleared her throat.

"About Nicole, Irene, Renata and a few others will bring her back safely. If you could just have a little faith-"

"In _you_? In _Neoma_? In _Nevaeh_? Honestly, all of you have betrayed me. I'd find a more reliable ally in The Queen than in any of you. You guys never told me anything. Am I not trustworthy to you all? Then why the _hell_ did you make me the leader after Cheryl secluded herself? Because Nicole was too nice? Because Ava can't walk anymore? Because Emberly holds grudges? Because Elva's doesn't have enough experience? Because Emilie's too impartial?" Nala hissed sharply, not for a moment looking away from Wren until she finished. Her gaze raked over the witches before her, as though challenging them to defy her.

Only silence met her words as the witches glanced warily at one another.

Finally, it was Elva who spoke, clearing her throat.

"We picked you because you were someone who could keep us in line, and not hesitate to punish us." She answered, her voice a little hoarse.

"I see I did _such_ a good job at that." Nala shot back sarcastically.

"It couldn't ber helped. You've been going through a lot because of your cousin and Katilyn." Elva replied.

"So my ineptitude will be excused because I've been emotionally compromised?" Nala questioned, slowly standing.

"Nala-"

"When my laxness has lead to _four_ witches whom I'm supposed to protect and guide to be injured?" Nala shook her head in disgust.

" _Get_. _Out_. Do whatever the hell you want, but don't expect any help from me. I will only promise to keep any uninvolved witch safe."

"Does that include-"

"I. Said. Get. The. _Hell_. Out." Nala growled, cutting off Wren's question.

A few of the witches bowed low and scrambled the hell out, but before Shizuo himself could leave, he felt a cold hand grab his arm.

He turned to meet the piercing blue eyes of the leader of the witches herself.

"Regardless of what I said, I do wish you the best. For as many horrible things The Queen has done, at heart, she's not a wicked person. She's been twisted by the world. However, she's gone too far now, and I doubt there's any saving her if you go through with the same plan as last time. It would be best for this place to disappear and for the story of The Queen and the Castle to become like an urban legend. The sooner, the better. I don't know what Nameless is planning to do this time, but she may not be on your side. For as much as she might pretend otherwise, she still loves and cares for N- The Queen." Nala told him, before releasing his arm and brushing past him.

Shizuo stared after her, still trying to make sense and absorb what he had witnessed.

"Shizuo, come on!" Elva called, breaking Shizuo out of his trance.

"Right, I'm coming." He paused, however, to glance at one of the paper's lying on Nala's desk.

_'I regret to inform you that I will be sending you a few pages of one of Katilyn's stories letter by letter...She's...Katilyn is dead. This book...is her autobiography. Read and weep._

_XXXX,  
SS aka NL'_

Not wanting to keep the witches waiting any longer, Shizuo left before he could ponder on the letter any longer. Maybe if he had, he would have recognized the handwriting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katilyn- Mina’s older sister, and Nala’s longtime friend who left the Castle with Mina and a few others after the incident between Mina and The Queen, though her reasons are ambiguous and unclear. She was a writer and was also debatably close with Nameless before Nameless was banished from the Castle.


	17. Restart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisette finds herself in an interesting situation where she overhears a conversation between The Queen and a mysterious woman named Natalie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for really slow updates, December is always really busy for me, and I’m have a lot of writer’s block for most of my other stories...
> 
> Regardless, hope you enjoy this update.
> 
> ~BurningSwan

It's cold and wet and dark. There's the scent of rot, the scent of rust, and the scent of blood. The scent permeates the air in a way that's inescapable. It's so _cold_ , it's too much. I'm sorry. Help...

Help me...

_IZAYA!_

———

When Lisette sits up, it's too forceful and sudden, and too much. She slams her head against the metal of the bunk above her and she recoiled, hissing in pain, pressing her fingers gingerly to her forehead.

"How...feeling...I miss...was so long ago..." The faint sound of The Queen's voice snapped Lisette to full consciousness, as she tried to pick out the words and tried to figure out who she could be talking to.

"Ha, fuck you. After keeping me here for so long, I don't think you have the right to say that." The harsh snarl in retort is much louder than The Queen's feather-soft words, allowing Lisette to clearly hear the words. She can't place the voice, it was female, but harsh and rugged and pained.

Lisette stiffened when she heard a long clang, peering through the darkness towards the sound to maybe make out what was going on down the hall. She tested the door to her cell, surprised to find it unlocked and creaked it open, stepping into the musky hall of the Reformatory.

"That's because, sweet Natalie, you tried to kill _Jackson_. You know that's not okay!" This time, The Queen's voice was clear, high-pitched and fast and clearly edging on mania.

The Queen was losing it; she was sinking in to the inner insanity clawing at her mind constantly. The insecurity and the obsession mixing to form a dangerous corrosive poison.

Lisette's footsteps quickened until she could clearly see The Queen, with her fingers curled tight on the bars of a prison cell, staring down at a red-haired woman sitting casually on the floor and returning the stare evenly. She stopped where she was to listen and watch.

"Ha! You told me to, you psycho! And I never tried to kill him, I made sure to get him as far away as possible from you so that _you_ wouldn't kill the poor man. What did he do? Huh, Queen, did he even fucking do anything?" Natalie snapped, sounding amused in a twisted way.

The Queen laughed, laughed, and laughed. A laugh too high-pitched and distorted to mean anything good.

"That's right. _He_ didn't do anything," The Queen finally spoke, after she reigned in her laughter to the occasional giggle. " _I_ did."

" _I_ was the one who distorted his words when I took Izaya into the Castle. _I_ was the one who decided to play a sick game with my twin sister because _I_ was already too far gone. But you want to know what, Natalie? It doesn't matter anymore. You'll be free soon, and you can then return to Clair, to the Outside. Maybe you can even hang out with Nameless again, like you three used to. You could be _friends_ again. And you want to know why? Because Nameless is back! Do you know what that means?" The Queen rocked back and forth on her feet, rattling the bars of the cage as she did so.

"You're crazy," Natalie hissed, eyes cold. "Just let it _fucking_ go. You've done what Jackson asked you to do. Let Izaya leave, _hell_ , go with him and go back to what you had before."

"It's too late!" The Queen screeched. "I can't go back Outside for that long! Do you know what happened," she smacked the bars to emphasize her point. "Ha, you don't. You don't fucking _know_. Besides, Nameless has already taken _him_ away. I don't know what happened to him, she did something and I fucking- I can't anymore...I'm going to fucking _kill_ her...Besides, we can't go back...It's not the same, no, no, it's not..." The Queen broke down, sobbing, sliding down to slump on the floor.

Lisette was shocked, for as much time as she had spent getting The Queen's trust before and weaseling her way to The Queen's side, she'd never seen the woman ever show any emotional weakness, and she had definitely never broke down so completely and openly. Did that mean she trusted whoever this Natalie person was that much? Did she feel safe enough to let her defenses down?

"If you're going to go through with this, keep the people you care about away," Natalie said softly. "If you can, send your twin away, Elizabeth, if you can as well. I don't mean Izaya, though, don't get me wrong, but the others. You've already hurt everyone enough, haven't you?" Natalie slowly stood, offering her hand out to the trembling and sobbing Queen.

The Queen looked up through her tears and slowly, hesitantly stretched out her hand to accept Natalie's offer of help and also agree to her suggestion. But just when she'd almost reached up far enough to brush Natalie's skin, she yanked her hand back as though she'd been burned and she shuffled backwards towards the wall, still on the ground.

She quickly stood, regaining her usual composure and turning sharply away from Natalie, who slowly dropped her offered hand down.

"You won't see me again." The Queen muttered and was gone, there was another softer message that followed but Lisette couldn't pick up on it.

"You're still my friend as well, don't you forget it, you crazy bastard!" Natalie yelled after The Queen.

Lisette wasn't sure how to react. She'd ended up learning a lot of things she'd had no idea about.

She slowly approached Natalie, catching the red-hair's attention.

"Who are you?" Lisette asked as she drew closer, fascinated by the woman for some reason.

Natalie laughed softly.

"Once, I was a friend of The Queen. But she changed...multiple times actually. Hell, when I first met her, she was convinced she hated Nameless and was with a man who was only using her to get her to kill her twin. But then, things changed and eventually, she met Jackson...She was mostly fine then, but when the whole thing with the Castle happened and...Izaya, she...Something happened between her and Nameless, I'm certain of it. And it drove The Queen into a corner. Now, we're here. Where I'm locked up here for no damn reason other than to be kept out of the way, I suppose, with all the forgotten faces of the Castle." She answered, fluttering her eyelashes to narrow over her bright blue eyes.

"Why is The Queen so obsessed with Izaya?" Lisette queried, having a hunch this was one of the few people who actually knew why and not just that she was obsessed.

Natalie sighed and leaned away from the bars to sit on the makeshift metal chair in her cell.

"It's complicated, but the short of it was she was asked to take care of Izaya by her most important person, it was her last favor to him, his last request to her before they went their separate ways. He stayed Outside and she kept within the Castle, because of the Shadows...," Natalie narrowed her eyes and shifted her gaze from nothingness to Lisette's face. "Did you know that there are two types of the Shadows?"

Lisette froze, feeling her blood turn cold.

"N-No, the Shadows are something everyone knows very little about," She stuttered in reply. "It's a bit of a taboo topic..."

Natalie nodded somberly.

"Not many people know this, but there are a few other residents of the Castle that have been Outside, who came from the Outside, though most have had their memories altered to forget this fact, _to relieve them of their trauma_ , of course. I am one of few who still remember that I was born Outside. My twin, Clair, is still Outside...She never came here. But that aside, the two types of Shadows: the Shadows of Fate, the well-known ones, the ones that The Queen fears and distrusts. Then there's the ones most people Outside can't see and don't even know about: The Shadows of the Past. If you go somewhere where you have been before, you can see all past versions of yourself that have been there doing what they did when they were there. It's like a real life visualization of every memory you have of a certain place. These memories can also show people you interacted with in the past, which is the normal. The rare cases you only see yourself and not anyone you interacted with on that day in the past. The Shadows of Fate, they aren't necessarily malicious, nor do they necessarily have ill intentions. However, they have free roam, unlike the Shadows of the Past, and even have their own will. It is true that they can inflict both emotional and physical pain on someone, but that depends on the person. Certain people like The Queen have a stronger pull for the Shadows, and thus the Shadows are more interested in them and can actively interfere with that person. I think The Queen had too strong of an affinity towards the Shadows that it overwhelmed her."

"I still don't understand exactly what the Shadows of Fate are..." Lisette mumbled, only understanding so much of what Natalie said.

Natalie shook her head gently.

"There's one thing The Queen is right about the Shadows of Fate; you can't describe them to anyone. You have to see it for yourself."

Lisette silently turned away, suddenly feeling her skin crawl and twitch with discomfort as a sick feeling settled in her stomach.

_Somebody save me!_

She walked back in silence towards her cell, but whirled around when she sensed Nicole's essence nearby.

_It hurts. It hurts. It hurts so, so bad._

She walked slowly towards where she sensed Nicole's loneliness and anguish and confusion.

_Fuck, you need to WAKE UP! Wake up! WAKE UP!_

Lisette's feet slipped out from under her and she screamed when the ground disappeared and she woke up thrashing her arms and legs, rattling the chains of the manacles chaining her to the wall. She wasn't in the Reformatory, but where she'd brought Shinra before to be...brainwashed. She yanked against the manacles with all her strength to no avail.

_Help me...Help me...someone...anyone..._

The small, fragile witch looked up, freezing with cold terror when the door opened, heart in her mouth and blood pounding in her veins.

She knows full well what's coming for her. She's still useful to The Queen, she's still usable. She's not expendable like others because of her ability. So all they needed to do was _restart_ and _reset_ her and it'd all be washed away. She went limp and cried and didn't even try to resist when the small tablet was pushed into her mouth.

_No, you need to WAKE UP! Please!_

_LISETTE!_


	18. New Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t really like the end of this chapter or the next chapter, but I don’t think I’m going to change them...
> 
> I would have posted this sooner but I was debating changing the ending and was also busy in December.
> 
> Hope you enjoy...
> 
> ~QS

He was just wandering the halls as usual. Or was it usual? His mind was still hazy and muddled from the dream he had, which he had thought was strange but Shinra had assured him that it must be because the dream had seemed so realistic to Izaya. In a way, his explanation had made sense and Izaya hadn't wanted to argue the point so he'd just quietly accepted it even though there was still that itch that something was wrong.

He paused as he passed an open hall to his left, his eye catching on a bluish shimmer he remembered seeing before; it didn't matter whether that was in the dream or reality. He turned down that hall sharply, eyes peeled to catch that gleam when he runs straight into someone.

There's the quick and embarrassed apologies but the blonde woman catches his wrist.

"Izaya- shit- what happened to you?" The woman's brown eyes are unfocused, she reminds Izaya of someone that he can't quite place, and she seems somewhat delirious and desperate.

He meets those unfocused brown eyes coldly and yanks his wrist away from the woman's warm grip.

"Who are you?" He demanded, tone flat with the undertones of suspicion.

The woman froze, and suddenly her eyes focus and fix on his face.

"I-I'm Nai...We've met before...In this same hallway, just about a week or so ago...Izaya...Don't tell me you don't remember... _again_?"

Izaya barely catches the soft utter of the  'again', but he does. But he pushes it away. He trusts The Queen, she was like a mother to him when he had no one else...

"I don't think we've met, or if we have I don't remember. Please leave me alone, I have things to attend to."

_Like figuring out what that shimmer on the walls was...Was it a visible part of the Purification enchantment? Or something else entirely?_

"Nai, what are you doing? I told you I want to check on my sister!" The snap of a male voice is enough to draw both Izaya and Nai's attention.

The blonde woman sent him one last look before she ran towards a tall dark-haired man and disappeared down the hall with him.

Izaya stared after her for a moment, tilting his head in consideration before he glanced back at the walls for that glimmer and paced down the halls to find the source of it all. He walked for a long time, the hallway seeming to stretch on forever, but when he turned slightly, he jerked to a halt.

Rather than an open hallway, there was just a small indent in the wall the width of a hallway, with a black hook on the wall that currently held the source of the blue shimmer, a seemingly enchanted key. Izaya eyed it suspiciously, wondering what the key was possibly for, why it was placed here in the open, and why it emitted sparks of blue. He tentatively reached out towards the key, wrapping slender fingers around it to bring it towards himself for a closer inspection. He felt a strange jolt the instant his fingers brushed the surprisingly hot metal, but the feeling quickly faded as the key become cool to the touch.

It didn't seem like anything special; just a small silver key with an unknown purpose.

"Put that down, Izaya." A cold voice commanded from behind him, and when he turned around there was an unfamiliar woman there. She was around his height, with her dark hair twisted in a braid, bright eyes sunken into her ashen face, and there were bruises and cut accenting her skin.

"Who are you?"

"The one entrusted with that key," she answered flatly, not even batting an eyelash at the question. "Now put it back."

"What is it for?"

The woman blinked lazily.

"I don't know. But my brother's friend entrusted it to me. I refuse to let her down. All I know it that it is important that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."

"Is it some highly desired powerful object then?" Izaya queried, studying the innocuous key and doubting it could be some powerful magical item.

The woman blinked again and scratched at a cut on her arm.

"I told you, I don't know. Now put it back and go on your way. It's better you don't stick your nose in too far. Not in the Castle. Not being who you are." The woman slowly approached him and took the key- not forcefully- from his open palm and placed it on the hook. She pushed against a certain spot on the wall and the key disappeared from sight.

"What do you mean by who I am?"

The woman turned away, placing a hand on her neck, hiding a particularly bad bruise, and huffed a breath.

"Figure it out yourself and stay out of this."

"This?"

"Good. You don't know. Keep it that way." The woman walked away without a further word, leaving Izaya staring after her before he turned back to the wall where the key had been.

He shrugged and gave up figuring it out. But only for now.

***

"Izaya seems different recently." Erika commented as she sat in the cafeteria with the rest of her friends. Izaya wasn't there- again- and it had crossed her mind several times that something was going on.

"Maybe something happened."

"But what?"

The four stared at each other, but three of them still looked pensive. Kadota seemed to be the only one with an idea of what was going on.

***

"Oh, thank god! Where did you run off to?" Irene slowed to a stop, bending over and panting as she tried to catch her breath.

The addressee merely blinked calmly.

"You're worried for no reason, Irene. I can take care of myself perfectly fine."

"Perfectly fine, my ass. Take a look at yourself! Look what The Queen did to you! You look like hell, and I'm sure it was painful."

"I'm fine. I'm stronger than I look. Besides, I needed to check on something. Urgently."

"What could be so important that you'd risk your freedom and safety?" Irene demanded, still slightly out of breath.

Nicole glanced back over her shoulder at the wall.

"Nothing that would matter to you. Since you hate Wren." She replied, freeing her hair and brushing it across her shoulders to cover the dark bruise on her neck.

"Correction: she hates me." Irene said monotonously.

"Because you tried to hurt Nai." Nicole reminded.

"Because she's a horrible person!" Irene snapped, then frowned and sighed. "Besides, that was years ago."

"Witches have trouble forgiving, even between each other. Even with our bond." Nicole glanced at her broken fingernails casually.

"Yeah, I know, I noticed."

"Where's Shizuo, by the way? What is our next course of action? Do we still plan to stage an uprising? Will the Castle crumbled and The Queen become known as an infamous tyrant, known only as a fictional character crafted to scare children, will certain ones of us be painted as martyrs or as demons? What a world we live in, Irene. Maybe I should next write about here, a fictitious story of a crazy escapade gone awry..."

"And Maria?" Irene interjected.

Nicole blinked and placed a hand against her neck.

"When we leave here finally, I _will_ find her. I will save her from whatever it is she is facing."

"What if you can't?"

"You shouldn't doubt me, Irene, I'm much more capable-"

"Than you seem, yes, I get it," Irene cut in. "But maybe you should let Maria deal with this alone."

"After all she's done for me? Never."

Irene pinched her brows.

"I got it. Let's go to Nala."

"What about the others who were with you?"

"Oh, them? Renata's safe, she already returned to your dorm. As for Ava and her cousin...Better not to dwell on it too long. Makes it easier to sleep at night."

"What does that mean?"

"...Just keep walking. We haven't reached the end of this yet. This is only the beginning. A new beginning of an old story." Irene gently pushed Nicole along from behind.

"The same as before, or different?" Nicole mused, somewhat rhetorically.

"Only time will tell..."

"There's one variable that could be introduced that could shake things up this time." Nicole commented serenely.

"And what's that?"

"I'm sure you'll see. Nai is a clever woman, you know, and she's always been really close with two people other than Wren, one being my older brother, and the other..." Nicole trailed off with a grin.

"Mina." Irene breathed, as Nicole softly echoed the name.

***

_Click_.

The round pebble bounced right off the curved window and a woman with eyes like a snake's sat coiled on a large rock, staring at her reflection in the smooth glass.

"What are you doing, Clair? Lissandra has been looking for you." A pretty brunette with warm brown eyes crossed her arms as she observed the short woman sitting on the rock.

Clair turned to send a fleeting glance at her.

"Mina," she greeted blandly. "I've been waiting for my sister's return. I don't think I could handle seeing Briya again."

"Briya?" Mina queried, frowning slightly, her brows creasing but her face still maintained its smooth beauty.

"The Queen. It's her birth name. She relinquished the name you knew her by. Just like Nameless, except she relinquished her real name rather than her other name, but goes by neither. Do  you know what she said to The Queen on that day? 'Nameless though I am, I am Nameless'...Stupidly clever, don't you think?"

"How do you know that? I doubt you were there." Mina questioned, sitting down next to the younger woman.

"The Queen told me, before she totally lost herself."

"Whatever happened to her that made her the way she is?"

"Many things. As for obsession with that child..."

"He was like a son to her, isn't that right?"

Both Mina and Clair perked up, turning  to stare at Demetria, the once best friend of Cheryl and the current mother to said ex-friend's daughter.

"Demi. How's Rosita?" Mina queried.

"Fine," Demetria replied shortly. "But you have more important things to be considering. Has Nala replied to the letters at all?"

"You knew about those?" Mina looked slightly horrified.

"You can't hide these things forever. Your older sister isn't the kind to up and die quietly. She's too flashy at heart for that."

"Mina didn't send the letters," Clair spoke up softly. "Nameless did. Katilyn trusted Nameless more than Mina, both during life and after death."

"Shut up, Clair. You're afraid of The Queen."

"And you're afraid of everything," Clair countered. "Even your own mother."

Mina stood up abruptly.

"I hope your sister is dead like mine. I hope Lissandra realizes how horrible a person you are and becomes friends with Fawn instead."

"Fawn's a psychopath."

"I like her more than you. And you're still worse than her. I'm going to see Nala. I have loose ends I never tied up back in the Castle."

"Of course."

"Tell me how Cheryl is doing...mentally, when you come back." Demetria murmured.

"If things go smoothly, you can ask her yourself. And maybe have her take responsibility for raising her child."

"Mina, one more thing before you go," Clair speaks up again, and even with her back to Mina, the brunette can see the curve of her smirk painting her lips. "I'm not afraid of The Queen. If I was, I wouldn't have finished my sister's job."

"What are you talking about?" Mina frowned in suspicion.

"Did you know The Queen asked Natalie to kill Jackson?"

"That doesn't-"

"She was, but she didn't kill him and I was asked by Nameless to make sure Jackson was kept far away from The Queen, so I just granted her request."

"You...You killed Jackson, you son of a-" Mina took a step forward, ready to beat the life out of Clair.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast," Mina clearly saw the look of mania in Clair's eyes as she turned to fix her gaze on Mina. "Unless you want more innocent people to die. Now, go on. Go clean things up in the Castle and end this silly charade. You wouldn't want me to have to raise two unidentifiable children, now would you?"

"What...?"

"Oh? You didn't know? The Queen has a son and a daughter. You know Izaya wasn't the only child she was raising."


	19. New Endings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this a while ago, but now I’m thinking I won’t post the next chapters until I’ve written all of them so I can post a chapter a day...
> 
> This story is about coming to a close, so enjoy
> 
> ~QS

As soon as they parted ways with Shizuo and the others, with a particular abrupt end to her relationship with Wren (something that was actually a long time coming, but still seemed out of left field), the blonde-haired, brown-eyed woman known as Nai ran off at full speed down the hallway, quickly followed after by a confused Noah.

"Nai, where are you going?" Noah hissed, running after the blonde. Nai ignored him, easily navigating the halls of the Academy despite its monotony.

"Let's go help Irene, what are you hoping to do?"

Nai ignored him, pelting ahead, not caring if she lost him or not because she had something in mind to fix everything. Yes, with the presence of Nameless, a rebellion against The Queen's tyranny was sure to occur, but it'd be even better with the introduction of another catalyst, and Nai knew just the person for that.

She ran down hall with the room they'd kept Shizuo trapped in by drugging him, about to reach the end and turn the corner when she collides with someone who turned the corner sharply.

There's the quick and embarrassed apologies but once Nai realized who she ran into, she catches his wrist.

"Izaya- shit- what happened to you?" With her mind scattered and chasing after multiple thought patterns, she can hardly bring herself to focus on Izaya, not for as important as this might be.

Izaya meets her eyes with a cold calculation and yanks his wrist free, eyes gleaming on a hint of threat in the reddish depths.

"Who are you?" He demanded, tone flat with the undertones of suspicion.

Nai froze, and suddenly her eyes focused and fixed on his face as her mind cleared from its haze.

"I-I'm Nai...We've met before...In this same hallway, just about a week or so ago...Izaya...Don't tell me you don't remember... _again_?" Nai stumbled over her words in her mindless shock and horror.

"I don't think we've met, or if we have I don't remember. Please leave me alone, I have things to attend to."

Nai almost sighed in resignation, about to head off again and give up until she heard Noah's voice coming closer. He must have caught up after she'd run into Izaya.

"Nai, what are you doing? I told you I want to check on my sister!" The snap of his voice is enough to draw both Izaya and Nai's attention.

Nai shot one glance back at Izaya, edged with desperation for him to remember, before she ran towards Noah and turned down another hall with him.

"Nai-"

"I'm going to get Mina, bring her here, and end this farce. This is the end of the Castle, Noah. Everything we've known will come to an end, shattered on the edge of a knife held by only a child."

"What-"

"If anything happens to me, I trust you'll take care of Wren."

She still loved Wren, of course, but they just weren't meant to be together. She knew she could entrust Wren's safety to Noah, and maybe the two would grow closer because of it.

"Why would anything happen to you...? Nai, what..." Noah stopped, but Nai kept walking, shoulders stiff, refusing to hunch together as she walked as if to her own death.

"I'm confronting what's been kept in the closet, you know? The monster that before I couldn't face."

"What are you referring to? Does this have to do with Mina, or...? If it's like that, we couldn't have done anything about-"

"No, it's not that. Noah, when did you think I met The Queen and Nameless? A little before you? But that's not the case. I knew them... _Outside_."

"You've never been Outside-"

"Noah, go to your sister. You shouldn't take after me. You shouldn't have to go what I went through when I unintentionally led my younger sister to her own death." Nai's eyes were cold, dead, dark like a starless night in winter.

Noah opened his mouth to say something more, but closed it at Nai's withering glare, his mouth to dry anyway to form any cohesive words.

For a while, the two just stared each other down until the taller relented.

"I got it. But Nicole would never die that easily. Not when she has things she still has to do."

Nai said nothing, merely inclining her head as a gesture of genuine gratitude and ran off before Noah could say another word.

She reached the threshold of the Castle in record time, slamming her feet to the ground in an abrupt stop before she collided with the large chestnut doors, resting a hand against the smooth and worn wood to steady herself as she caught her breath.

"Leaving so soon, Naia?" No malice dripped off the query, only childish innocence and curiosity.

Nai turned her head slightly to the side to see a small, lanky boy curled up around one of the decorative statues to the right of the door, and a younger girl sitting below it, eyes half-closed and breathing seeming unsteady.

She smiled softly at the boy, the one who had addressed her in the first place.

"Keeping an eye on me as always, huh Rhys? Your mother would be proud." Nai's voice carried a lilt and a meaning that would pass over any other boy his age's head, but she knew Rhys wasn't like other kids.

The boy, Rhys, furrowed his brows and pulled his lips into a pout.

"I don't know who that is. I'm sure I'm unwanted. Everyone loves Cleo, but they think I'm too much trouble. Auntie Kiyomi always brings us to different people every month," The boy unraveled himself from the statue and dropped down to the floor. "Are you going to see that woman again?"

"Again? But I haven't seen her in years. The person I normally plan to visit is," Nai's mouth twisted in discomfort. "Not Outside." She decided on.

"Is it really dangerous Outside, like Auntie Kiyomi says?" The younger girl, Cleo piped up.

Rhys shot his sister a glance, but otherwise said nothing, turning back expectantly to Nai for her answer as well.

Nai chuckled at the combined weight of the siblings' stares.

"Depends. But be good for your aunt, okay? And for me. Don't go around doing anything dangerous, Rhys, and keep an eye on your sister," Nai straightened, wrapping her fingers around the handle. "And tell Kiyomi I'm setting things in motion."

"'Kay, Auntie Naia." Cleo said, standing up finally and holding a hand out to her older brother, who was practically double her height.

"I won't let anyone hurt Cleo." Rhys promised, taking the four year old's hand and bringing his sister close to him. "And I'll pass your message on."

"Good." Nai beamed at the children and finally pulled the door open, blinking at the rays of bright light that splashed upon her face and then stepped out into Outside.

The door slammed shut behind her, a reminder of the unwelcomeness of the Shadows and anything foreign to the Castle.

Nai huffed a breath, shoving her hands into her pockets and walking down the steps. Just to the left of her, a hazy image of a younger version of herself skipped down the stairs and rushed to greet a beaming brunette, crushing the brunette into a hug. Normally, Nai would have cracked a smile at the visualization of her memory, but she kept her face straight and walked with purpose.

It wasn't a long walk to the small village Nai had visited time after time. Her walk wasn't frequently interrupted, only sometimes disturbed by the cawing of a shadowy crow or the rustle of the forestry around her. The village, as was to be expected, was virtually abandoned. The only noise aside from the insects was the irritating click of a rock on a window, inconsistent in pattern but too persistent to be mistaken for anything else. It meant Clair was here, and Nai wasn't sure if she wanted to deal with the temperamental, demon-eyed twin of the much gentler Natalie.

She threw down the bag she had with her in the center of the village, by a cracked and dry fountain, and sat on it with arms crossed.

"Nai...Mina was just getting ready to leave." There's an unspeakable softness to Demetria's voice that causes Nai to turn her body sharply towards the voice, not sure whether she wanted to comprehend the image of Demetria holding Cheryl's daughter in one arm tightly to her chest as though that was all she had left to cherish. But, maybe that was true. She had lost not only her humanity but her best friend out of her selfishness and greed.

"That's great, I had come here to get her. It's about time we make use of the flames we've been kindling," the grin that stretches across her face is saccharine and unnatural, oozing malice and screaming for blood. "After all," she cooed, stepping up to Demetria, who tightened her hold on Rosita as if to protect her. "Where there's a _fire_ , someone's bound to get _burnt_."

Demetria turned away sharply, taking sharp steps away from Nai.

"Well, it hasn't much to do with me. Just don't get Cheryl involved in your silly squabble." She muttered, and then left quickly, Rosita gazing over her shoulder curiously at the crazed blonde woman.

———

It's only minutes until Mina finally appears, sweeping into the center of the city in an elegant black dress slick with dark feathers, the front shorter than the back so it swept out like a tail. Nai smiled at her longtime friend.

"Good to see you again, Mina."

"Likewise, Nai." The brunette swept close to her friend, running a gentle hand down her face, tangling in her hair before pulling the blonde into a hug.

It's extremely fleeting, though.

Mina pulled away, eyes hardening.

"We haven't much time, I think. Let's get going before things get even more out of hand." She said tersely.

"How much do you know?" Nai raised a brow as her friend grabbed her left hand with her right.

"Enough." Mina huffed, and then they were racing across the open plains, exposed to the watchful eyes of the Shadows of Fate, careful where they stepped, careful where they stopped.

They don't arrive at the front of the Castle like they should. They get cut off less than five minutes away, surrounded by prowling beasts taller than they are.

"Well," Mina mused, quirking her lips as her eyes gleamed with mischief and danger. "This is truly unfortunate. I was hoping to get to see everyone again sooner rather than later." Her grin turned maniacal.

There's a flurry of motion— too fast to make out by any observer- and then Mina and Nai leap back, feet thudding heavily on the packed dirt, and before them laying the fallen bodies of the slain monsters. It's nothing fancy, the people who lived Outside were used to this kind of occurrence and had to be able to defend themselves. But Mina and Nai might just be a slight exception.

They both stopped to catch their breath for a moment, barely containing breathy laughter, before they ran the rest of the way to the Castle, still splattered with blood, and preparing for the absolute mayhem awaiting them. A revolution was a-rising.


End file.
